Rules
by KatjaLillian
Summary: The rules were simple, keep your guard up, no one is to be trusted unless they have the sign, or are in the Order. Don't let someone cloud your judgement. Don't show your powers, or gifts. Don't let your real identity be known, Kale and Kati Venish are dead. And lastly, never fall in love, that could only hurt the people involved. Mostly with the information that they have.
1. Everybody Hurts

**A New Life**

_"Everybody hurts some days, it's okay to be afraid. _

_Everybody hurts some days, we all feel pain."_

_-__**-Avril Lavigne, Everybody Hurt**__s_

"Your parents are dead." The words echoed through Kati's head when they were spoken to her, she wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't seen it months ago. "We need to get you and your brother to a safe place."

Two weeks later she and her brother were in England. Kati and her brother were the last ones in her family to live. Deatheaters had killed them; she recognized the skull and snake that was above their vacation home in Galveston Texas. Even though she knew it was going to happen, she was unprepared for it to happen so soon.

Her parents were activists for equality for all creatures, and had gotten both of their families killed by doing it in England in the First Wizarding war back in the sixties, seventies, and early eighties, that caused them to move to America when her and her older brother were small children. They were homeschooled in Magic before they were usually taught, at just six years old and were already great wizards, though Kati was almost sixteen and Kale was seventeen.

Kale came in to their small apartment in Diagon Alley carrying groceries, it would be two weeks until they went to Hogwarts, so Kale could take his NEWT's, though they wouldn't let Kati take hers, even though she knew she could pass them, but she did have her pick of what classes she wanted to take with her OWL scores.

"You need to get dressed." Kale told her, with a sigh. "You've been in your pajamas for the passed two days. Take a shower."

"We couldn't even have a funeral." She whispered, staring out the window to the busy street below. Families were going passed, and it was like she could hear the laughter and see the smiles. "There was nothing left to bury."

"Yeah, and we need to get our supplies for school." Kale told her. "We need to be strong, Kati. We have to take care of ourselves now."

Kati nodded. "Fine, I'll take a shower."

"You're a good actress, Kati, and you're going to have to use that, no one can know who we are." Kale reminded her. "They said we could keep our first names, but we're Blake now, got it?"

She nodded, before disappearing behind the bathroom's closed door, and looked in the mirror. She used to be beautiful, before her parents were killed. Now, her light blonde hair was greasy and in a messy braid over her right shoulder. Her light blue eyes that used to be so full of light were now rimmed in red from crying, and looked empty. She had a fair complexion, with no freckles, eyebrows that looked as if they went with brown hair rather than blonde, and dark eyelashes that framed her eyes nicely. Her lips were a deep rosy pink, and had a nice shape to them, especially when she smiled to show her straight pearly white teeth.

Her brother and her may have looked alike, but she never saw it, he had dark blonde hair that fell in ringlets around his shoulders, and a deep tan with deep blue eyes and he was tall, nearly six feet. He could prioritize in a way that would always make Kati jealous, even though she was the actress in the family, she could smile when she was at her saddest, be strong at her weakness, and make someone think she could be trusted when she should be the last one to know. Kale was the real one, that didn't manipulate to get what he wanted, and was genuinely a good person, he wouldn't hurt someone else to get what he wanted; unlike Kati. They both had some of the same qualities though, doing anything for someone they loved, they were smart and brave, and they both recently became orphans. They only had each other now, their friends back home thought they were killed in the "gas leak" that killed their parents.

Loralei peeled off her sweat pants and tank top and got into the shower, letting the water wash away the tears, and pain that she felt in her whole body, after her shower, she dried her long hair and put on her makeup, looking much like she did before. After she got dressed, she came out of her room looking like a different person. Confident, happy, adventurous, beautiful.

Kale was reading the back of a box when she got out.

"What's that?" She asked.

"Hair dye. I have two choices for you." He held up two boxes. "Mahogany, or ebony."

"Mom and Dad said I couldn't dye my hair."

"Well they're not around anymore, are they?" He replied.

"Brown." She told him. "Give me brown."

"We'll do that tomorrow. For now let's just go get our school robes." He told her, getting up. "You need to have dirty hair."

"Duh," she told him. "What are you doing to change your look?"

"Minor things, I'm lightening my hair and changing my eye color." He told her. "We don't need major things, but I thought since you hate being blonde I'd give you the chance not to be blonde."

"Thank you." She told him, grabbing her wallet, and putting it in the back pocket of her jeans before grabbing her hoodie and shrugging it on.

"Do you have the wizarding money?" He asked.

She jumped, letting him hear the rattle of coins in her pocket.

"Good girl." He said. "Now look happy."

She made her eyes light up, and put an excited smile on her lips.

"Good, put that on if you talk to anyone." He told her, before opening the door to the hallway and locking it behind them.

"Do we need to put on British accents?" Kati asked.

"No, we can just say our parents sent us here." Kale told her. "We say as little as possible about our parents, and about our magic, or your talent, okay?"

"That's what you call it? I call it a curse." Kati told him bitterly.

"You were able to get us ready for this." Kale told her. "They were able to get the will, and get us enough money. They were ready to go."

"No, they weren't." She growled the words out. "That's why it's called being murdered. I can't talk about this right now, can we just not talk?"

"As long as you don't look miserable." He said.

Kati put an award-winning smile on her face, put a hop in her step, and went forward towards the stairs, waiting for her brother to follow.

"Hold still." She told Kale as she put the hair dye in his hair.

"I keep seeing you in the mirror, you look so different." He told her, looking at the dark hair that was piled on top of her head in a tight bun from the product.

"Thanks," she told him.

"So, you haven't cried in the passed day. What's up?"

"I stopped caring." She told him. "It hurts too much to care, so I stopped. It took six months since the vision to do it, but it's done."

"Don't say that."

"It's true. Mom and Dad are dead. They were torn to pieces by Deatheaters because they were activists." She said simply. "We'll live. We live."

"How do you know?" He asked. "You said you didn't really see much after you're twenty."

"I just know. Call it intuition." She told him, as she walked over to the trash can and peeled off her gloves, throwing them away, and setting a timer on the microwave for twenty minutes. "When this beeps, rinse out your hair in the sink, I'm going to rise mine out in the shower, since my hair is a lot longer than yours."

"All right." He said.

"Don't let your head touch anything, okay? The furniture will be ruined." She told him.

"Okay, now go wash that crap out of your hair." He told her.

"Yes, darling brother." She replied, rolling her eyes.

Half an hour later she started into her mirror, her hair had gone from the lightest blonde possible to a mahogany brown after she dried it. She colored her eyebrows so they were just a bit darker, and did her makeup to draw out her features, including bright red lipstick on her lips. She looked like a million dollars-or galleons-for the first time in a week. She put on a deep purple blouse with a lace trimmed spaghetti strap top under, and tied it up to show her slim waist, and sleek jeans with boots with a small heel, getting back into her old routine. Her hourglass figure accentuated by the tightness of her clothes. She was sexy, dangerous, mysterious, and unforgettable.

She walked out of her room, and her brother, with wet hair laughed.

"Look at you! I barely recognize you!" He said. "How do I look?" He tossed around his floppy wet hair, spraying her with little droplets of water.

"Hey!" She whined. "Dry that, will you? We need to get the rest of the school supplies and I don't need you to get sick."

"Fine, go get your jacket." He told her.

"Did you unpack my leather?"

"Yeah," he told her, pulling out his wand and muttering a charm to dry it.

"Where is it?"

"I don't know, where are all your other jackets?"

"Oh," she ran to her closet, and grabbed her leather jacket, zipping it up.

"You look like a biker chick." He told her. "Nothing like my sister."

"Good." She put her wallet in her pocket, as well as her keys to the apartment.

"What do you want for your birthday?" Kale asked.

Kati shook her head. "Nothing, I don't need anything.

"That's different." Kale said.

"You're right." Kati nodded. "I want a knife, I really cool pocket knife that I can keep in my boot for emergencies since I can't use magic anymore."

Kale shook his head. "Only you."

Kati shrugged. "Are you ready to go, or what? I thought you always waited on me."

"I'm coming." Kale said, pulling on his jacket, and catching the door before it closed behind Kati

The first place they went everywhere to get their school supplies, Kati wanted an owl, but since they had no one to write to they decided not to. Even though Kati said she was numb, her heart did sink a little bit at that.

Kati looked at the second page of the Hogwarts letter, and stopped in the middle of the street.

"What?" Kale asked.

"We need to get dress robes." She said, showing him the letter. "All fourth years and up."

Kale sighed. "Alright, let's go to Madame Malkins again."

They turned around, and went back to the shop they visited yesterday, going to the formal section, where Kati took an instant liking to a dress.

It was silver, with spaghetti straps and backless with a thin cord that tied right below her shoulder blades, it went to her ankles, and had a slit up her right leg that went nearly to the top of her leg. It was gorgeous, and when she tried it on it was even more gorgeous on her. The heavy fabric hung tight on her chest and hips, but loose around her waist, making her look thinner than she was. She fell in love with it even more.

Kale got simple deep blue robes, that matched his eyes, but when he found Kati looking sadly at the tag on the dress.

"What is it?" He asked.

"It's a hundred galleons. I can just hem Mom's old dress." Kati told him. "I'll go get changed, you can check out."

She got dressed, frowning at the dress, and went ahead of Kale to take some of their packages.

"I'll take the dress too." Kale told the woman, smiling.

Two days later Kale got up early to get the cake from the bakery, and hang up the dress in her closet, before waking Kati up at ten, with a knock on her door, and opening it.

"What?" She groaned, looking up to see her brother carrying a small chocolate cake with a single candle on it.

"I know you hate the 'happy birthday' song, so I'll leave you with. "Happy birthday." He put the cake in front of her so she could blow out the candle.

"Thank you." She told him, before blowing out the candle, and giving him a side-hug.

"There's more." He told her, dropping two forks on the bed, and opening her closet, showing her the dress.

"Oh my god." She squealed, putting the cake on her bedside table, and getting up to look at the dress. "You got me the dress!" She jumped on her brother, squeezing him until he couldn't breathe. "Thank you! Thank you! I love it! I love it! I love it!"

"Let me breathe." He told her, laughing. "Happy birthday."

"I think it might be."

**A/N: So here's a new story that had been stuck in my head for some time now. I found the name "Kati" was pronounced "Cot-ie" and I just fell in love with it, I had to write a story about a Kati. **

**Please Review!**

**Kat**


	2. Everybody's Fool

A New Name

"Look here she comes now, bow down and stare in wonder.

Oh, how we love you. No flaws when you're pretending."

-Evanescence, Everybody's Fool

"You go first."

"Are you kidding?" Kale replied. "You're the damaged one of the two, you should go first."

Kati took a deep breath. "Fine." Her heels clicked forward as she positioned her cart in front of the barriers between 9 and 10. She shook her whole body, trying to get the nerves to disappear, of course they didn't.

She took a deep breath, and started running forward, her heels clicking behind her, but not falling off to her surprise, and before she knew it, she was in front of a scarlet train.

"Oh my god." She sighed, a smile breaking across her lips, before her brother appeared beside her.

"Wow," he agreed. "I mean, they told us about it..."

"But it didn't sound this cool. Like a dream." Kati agreed.

"Let's go get our stuff on the train, do you have your bag to get changed? Money?"

Kati nodded, as they headed for the back of the train, and started putting their trunks. Kati picked up her trunk while Kale got his on the train, and struggled with getting it inside since she wasn't very tall.

"Whoa there," some guy said behind her, before helping her get it on top of a pile.

"Thanks," she turned to see a tall guy, about her age with long ginger hair and chocolate colored eyes. "Height isn't one of my many qualities."

"And what are your other qualities?" He asked.

"Oh, it takes a while for them all to show." She replied.

"Maybe you can show me some of them, some time." He said.

"Maybe after I get your name." She replied.

"Fred Weasley." He said. "What's yours?"

"Kati Ve-Blake. Kati Blake." She said, reminding herself to get used to the name.

"Never heard that name before." He told her.

"I'm proud to be unique." She told him. "I hate to stand invisible with the crowd."

"Who are you talking to?" Kale asked, standing beside her.

"Kale this is Fred," she said. "Fred, this is my brother, Kale."

Fred smiled. "So we're getting two new students that aren't Firsties this year."

"Lucky you." Kati told him.

"I'm going to go see if our cousin is here, I'll be in the back of the train." He lowered her voice so only she could hear. "Remember the rules." He walked away.

"Don't mind him. Age has made him bitter." Kati told him.

"Older brother then." Fred said.

"Yeah, he's seventeen, I'm sixteen."

"We're in the same year then." Fred said.

"I'll at least know someone, right?" Kati grinned. "I hope you won't mind."

"Not with you." He told her. "If you want you can sit with us on the train."

Kati smiled. "I'd like that."

The rules were simple, keep your guard up, no one is to be trusted unless they have the sign, or are in the Order. Don't let someone cloud your judgement. Don't show your powers, or gifts. Don't let your real identity be known, Kale and Kati Venish are dead. And lastly, never fall in love, that could only hurt the people involved. Mostly with the information that they have.

When Kati was in the compartment, she felt her control slipping, she just wanted to feel like a teenager again. Joking around with Fred, and his twin brother George, as well as their friend Lee Jordan who had dark satiny skin with black dreadlocks, and was just as nice as the Weasley twins.

"So where'd you come from, Kati Blake?" Lee asked. "We don't know anything about you."

"I lived in America. For the passed week or so my brother and I have been living in Diagon Alley." She told them.

"What about your parents?" Lee asked.

"Dead, we've been jumping around family members for a while until Kale turned seventeen last year." She told them, saying the story Kale and her had come up with the night before. "Our Aunt taught us magic, and made sure we took our OWL's and everything."

"I'm sorry." Fred said.

Kati shrugged. "It's not your fault." She swallowed. "In lighter news. I used to live in Texas, it was always sunny there...unlike here. Do you ever see the sun?"

The three boys shook their head in unison. "Not really."

Kati laughed. "At least you're honest. I might not be the palest here." She stuck her arms in front of her, showing her slightly sun-kissed arms. "My friends used to make fun of me."

"Why?"

"Being pale in southern Texas is a sin." She told them. "I got so much crap for it."

"I have some questions about America." Lee said. "Is everyone rude?"

Kati laughed. "Are you calling me rude?"

"No," Lee backtracked. "It's just my cousin-"

She held up her hand, cutting him off. "Don't explain. It takes too long. It's the same as any other place, there are nice people, and there are rude people. It's a toss up. I take that back, we're all jackasses." She laughed.

"I think you're nice." Fred said.

"Well thank you." She smiled at him.

"What house are you in?" Lee asked.

She shrugged. "You'll know as soon as I do." She told them. "But most of my family has either been in Ravenclaw or Slytherin. I think Ravenclaw's more likely for me though."

"Why?" Fred asked.

"I got all O's in my OWL's."

"How?" Lee asked. "I only got one!"

"I'm good at guessing." She joked. "Naw, I just didn't get any sleep last year. That's why I'm so short."

"You're not short." Fred said.

Kati stuck up her foot, showing the four inch heel. "Are you sure? I'm five foot three."

"You're shorter than I thought." Fred muttered.

She laughed. "It's okay, my friends call me fun-sized, like the muggle candy."

When they looked confused, Kati shook her head. "I was raised in the muggle world I mean I had a TV and everything."

"A what?" They said together.

She shook her head, an amused smile still on her face. "Never mind, just never mind."

Kati and her brother walked up to the hat, her brother was called first by a tall woman with her dark hair in a tight bun underneath her hat. She looked at them sternly, but at the same time sadly. Did she know? She had to.

"Blake, Kale." She called.

Kale took his steps forward, not letting emotion cross his face. The hat was dropped on his light blonde curls, and almost immediately yelled. "Slytherin!" Everyone clapped, especially a greasy man in all black at the teacher's table.

Kati let out a breath, her chest deflating underneath her fitted white shirt, no tie.

A green and silver tie appeared on Kale's neck, and her let his grin show; he was in the same house as his mother. He gave a nod towards his sister, as if saying. "We'll talk later."

"Blake, Kati." The woman called.

Kati raised her head high, confidence surrounding her as she walked forward, and sat on the rickety stool, crossing her legs, and closed her eyes before the hat went on your head.

_You're a little more interesting, aren't you? Kati Venish? _A voice said. Her parents warned her about this.

_No more interesting than the story in the paper. _She replied.

_But you are much more interesting. A seer! You want to do good too. You're brave. Oh, smart...not any Hufflepuff in you though. Slytherin is a good one...but you're not the one that comes up with the plans, are you? Always your bother. How interesting._

Kati opened her eyes a second, flashing towards where the twins and Lee sat.

_Oh so that's what you want! Gryffindor, and more alone than ever...in Slytherin you have an ally, there you are alone. As you wish._

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat yelled.

More cheers were for her than her brother, though she didn't know why.

The hat was taken off her head, and a red and gold tie appeared around her neck. She looked up to the dark teacher she saw before, and this time he wasn't clapping. She smiled though, she smiled and went off to the twins, who made room for her between them.

"You were wrong." Fred teased.

"Sometimes I enjoy being wrong." She smiled, before looking over her shoulder at her brother, who was shaking his head. They were supposed to be in the same house, and she just threw that away.

She shrugged at him, and he nodded.

"What was that?" Lee asked, watching her.

"We wanted to be in the same house. The hat almost put me in Slytherin." She told them.

"What changed its mind? You were up there for a few minutes." George asked.

"I don't know." She lied. "Apparently I'm brave. News to me."

"You did say you ran into the pillar first." He said.

"I'm the test dummy, there's a difference." She smiled.

A whole lot of first years came in, which they sorted into the houses much like they did Kale and Kati, but the eleven year olds were nervous, something Kale and Kati did not show.

After they were all sorted, the headmaster stood up. Dumbledore, she could recognize him from a mile away. The one person she could trust outside her bloodline.

"We're hosting a legendary event this year! The Triwizard Tournament. It's where three schools come together and choose a champion to compete. I'll relieve this over to Mr. Barty Crouch to give the rules."

A small, frail, shaky man came to stand at the podium next to Dumbledore. "This year, the Ministry has decided that no one under the age of seventeen can be allowed to put their name in the cup-"

Suddenly all hell broke loose. "That's rubbish!" The twins next to her yelled together. "That's rubbish!"

"You don't know what you're doing!" George yelled.

"Boo!" Fred shouted at the same time.

Kati's hands went up to cover her ears. She already had a headache from the stress of the day.

"SILENCE!" Dumbledore boomed, causing everyone to shut up immediately. "The Goblet of Fire-" he moved his hand over a golden statue, where slowly a large rock goblet was shown. "Has three extremely dangerous tasks that could kill you. It will choose the most worthy student from each house. Write your house and your name on a piece of parchment to enter the tournament."

Everything was still silent, Kati could have heard a pin drop across the large hall.

"Now, can we welcome the Beaubation's Academy of Magic!"

Suddenly the doors opened, and a sea of periwinkle blue came in. Kati could tell from a mile away they were part-Veelas. Most of them at least. She reminded herself to stay away from them; beauty can either be your downfall or power, if you have it it's power, if you don't but someone else has, it's your weakness.

Durmstrang came next, their dull colors a nice break from the sea of black and blue going on, but they still all seemed like the color of a bruise in Kati's eyes.

After they all joined dinner was served, but Kati could barely allow herself to eat. Stress was still getting to her, and it was only her first day, what would tomorrow bring?

She already knew though. Potions with the greasy man at the head table, who's eyes had nearly been glued to her since she sat down.

The Venish Family had a long history, but somehow Rosalie-Kati and Kale's mother-was more interesting. Her maiden name was Logan, and she was a pureblood, and had a twin sister they had to give up. Her name was Lily, she had bright red hair and green eyes, unlike her twin who was light blonde and had blue eyes. They gave her to a muggle family who sincerely wanted another daughter. Neither knew of the other until they started school. They found out they were twins in their sixth year, though Lily said she still was a muggle born.

Rosalie's daughter never knew. Nor did she know that Rosalie and her sister were identical except for the hair and eyes. Nor did she know that there was a man that was weak for their looks. The same looks Kati inherited.

Kati didn't know what she was walking into that morning.

Kati always had a look about her when she was focused. Her hair always went in a messy ponytail, getting every bit of hair away from her face. She didn't even know that her mother and Lily would do the same when they were making potions for the Order.

Even though she had made the Draught of Living Death before, she was always careful with it. She had to ace it.

Fred knew he should be concentrating, but he couldn't help but watch how she made it without even looking in her book for the recipe, her hands moving artfully with the ingredients and knowing exactly how to use every ingredient perfectly.

Kati savored this class; it was the one time she didn't have to act, just do what she does best, even though her teacher was a bit of a dick.

Kati bottled hers before the rest of the class was finished, and sat down on the bench, beginning to draw on her notebook for something to do.

Snape, the Potion's teacher, didn't like that she wasn't working like the rest of the class. He walked over to her table, where she was in between Fred and Lee, and stopped behind her, and seeing the four gravestones on her muggle notebook, unlike the rest of the class, that's what she took notes on, but hers was empty of words.

"Miss Blake, why aren't you working?"

She looked up with big eyes, not because she was in trouble, but she was hoping to look younger. "Oh, I already finished." She looked back down, doing the shading on the blank gravestones.

"Maybe I should give you less time than the others." He said. "If you finish in forty minutes when it needs to simmer for twenty."

Someone cussed in the back of the classroom; they forgot to simmer it that long, but they were ignored except for a giggle from Kati.

"It always works better with mine when I only do it for fifteen minutes and add an extra valerian root." She told him, still shading the gravestones.

"You're not following the directions?" He asked

"I'd follow them if they were right." She told him.

"Ten points from Gryffindor for arrogance." He said.

She smiled; she already made twenty-five in Divination for having all the answers.

"Thank you, sir." She looked down at her drawings.

"And stay after class."

She was still smiling, so close to saying a few words that would definitely get her detention.

"Look at me, Miss Blake." He ordered.

She looked up, still smiling as bright as ever. "Yes, sir?"

"Stop smiling."

That only made her laugh instead, and stand up, though she didn't have much height, even with her heels. "Why should I? I think you're great." She said it so sincerely, that it could only be sarcastic with this man. "Now would you please grade my potion? It is finished after all, and since you're here, I don't see why you shouldn't."

"Did you hear that new girl in class?"

"Did you hear about that American in Potions with the Slytherins this morning?"

"That American sassed Snape in class!"

"He actually got angry at her!"

"I don't know who that girl is, but I will find her and I will marry her."

All those things were heard by Kati, she was the new legend in the school, and she somehow didn't even get detention for what she said. She could have told the whole class she caught him staring at her the night before.

Kati seemed to be under the protection of Fred and George though, no Slytherin came up to her even when she was alone, but that could be from her brother as well, but she doubted her brother would protect her after she did something like that. Drawing attention to herself.

Still, three of the four houses seemed to love her, and she even befriended Fred and George's little sister, Ginny, who adored her.

Everywhere Kati went she seemed to get a high-five or some other kind of attention. She liked it too much, and she knew she was going to show her gifts, mostly with nonverbal spells, she hadn't muttered a spell since she was fourteen. Somehow she still remained unnoticed, except by the twins, who they became close friends, never talking about that past, which was good for her, but she knew they wanted to know more.

They couldn't know more.


	3. Secrets

Friends and Family

_"Oh, got no reason, got no shame, got no family I can blame._

_Just don't let me disappear, I'mma tell you everything._

_Just tell me what you want to hear."_

_-One Republic, Secrets_

Kati made the aging potion, and was sure it wasn't going to work, with Dumbledore's age line. As she did so, she chatted with the twins, who got her the ingredients to make it in their dorm room.

"So, what are you going to do if you get chosen?" She asked them.

"Win, and get the money for our shop after school." They said together, as if obvious.

"That's cool, what kind of shop?" She asked, as she waited for the mixture to cool.

"Joke shop." Fred said.

Kati nodded, looking up at them. "Better than Zonko's?"

"Way better than Zonko's." George told her.

"We're going to make sweets that make you sick."

"Then you're going to need to be good at potions." She told them. "Why aren't you doing this?"

"Because you look happy when you're doing them." Fred told her. "What else are you good at?"

"Everything. I told you I got all O's." She told them.

"What classes?" George asked.

She looked up and counted them on her fingers. "Astronomy, Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies, Transfiguration, Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Divination, Charms, History of Magic, Potions, and Care of Magical Creatures."

"How many classes are you taking this year?" Fred asked.

"All but History of Magic, Muggle studies, and Ancient Runes." She told them.

"Are you going to have time to sleep?" Fred asked.

She looked at the potion and started filling the vials. "Sleeping's unimportant."

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" The crowd yelled.

"Motherfucker." Kati cursed, pushing her way though the crowd to break the fight up between Fred and George, who both had grey beards and hair, and were fighting. "I told you guys this would happen!" She said loudly, walking forward, and pulling one of them off the other. She still had trouble telling them apart, and the grey hair and beards didn't help any.

When the other one tried to get up, she put her heel on his chest, keeping him down, while the other was still on his back, both of them looking up at her.

Some of the crowd made disappointed noises, but some were just in awe of how quickly she did that.

She looked over at some boys behind her shoulder, and winked. "Just imagine what I can do with a little magic." She looked at the twins. "Are you going to play nice now?"

"What are you gonna do if I don't?" Fred asked. Yep, the one under her foot was Fred, he was always more flirty with her.

"Oh, honey, this is me being nice." She said, flirting right back. "You don't wanna see me mean."

"Miss Blake, Mr. Weasley, and Mr. Weasley." Dumbledore said, amused. "Miss Blake, please remove your foot off of Mr. Weasley, and Mr. Weasley, and Mr. Weasley please go to Madame Pomfrey to get the beards taken care of."

Kati did as they asked, but called after them. "I don't want any fighting, you hear?"

Kale came up and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her away as Dumbledore told everyone that if someone underage tried to get in, they would get the grey beard, and that Katie Bell was the last victim before them.

"Are you going to put your name in?" Kati hissed at him, when they got to the corner of the room, far away so no one could hear, but close enough to listen in.

"No, I have to take care of you." He told her. "Plus, that would be using my powers, and that's not what's supposed to happen. What happened in class with Snape?"

"I finished early and he didn't like it. He told me to stay after class, but I sneaked out in front of the twins, leaving a slip of paper that said, 'raincheck' at my spot." She told him. "I'm sorry Kale, he just was being a jerk the whole lesson! He asked me if he needed to slow down so I could keep up! Who does that?"

"He's my head of house, you know." He told her. "How come you didn't get into Slytherin anyway? You're a sneaky little bitch most of the time."

She shrugged, watching as one of the Durmstrang came in to put his name in the Goblet of Fire. "The hat said I was brave. If you don't agree, take it up with the hat, until then I'm in Gryffindor."

He paused. "I saw you look at the Gryffindor table before the hat said anything. Are you falling for one of those boys? That's against our rules, Kati..."

"I'm not falling for him, I have my emotions perfectly in check." She told him.

"Good, because we have a war to win." He told her. "Have you had any more dreams?"

She nodded. "Nothing of use though, so don't get your hopes up."

"Have you seen Luna?" Kale asked.

Kati shook her head. "Not yet, we don't seem to run in the same circles."

"She's a third year, and is getting bullied by her classmates. Try to take care of that." He told her, before walking away, leaving her alone in the corner of the room.

"He could have least told me where she is." Kati muttered to herself.

"Who is?" Ginny asked, coming up to her.

"Luna Lovegood, she's my cousin." Kati told her, putting an arm around her shoulders.

"I know her, we're friends." Ginny told her. "I don't know where she is right now though."

Kati shrugged. "it doesn't have to be now, she wouldn't recognize me anyway, we haven't seen each other in nearly ten years, I just want to catch up."

"You're her cousin?" Ginny asked.

"Our mother's were cousins, and so we're like second cousins or something, I really don't know or care." Kati told her honestly, before changing the subject. "So, how'd you like the show the boys put on?"

She giggled. "It was great. How do you get along with guys so well? I rarely see you hanging out with girls."

"They cause less drama." Kati told her. "You just talk to them like any other person. Guys are a lot more fun than girls unless you need girl time."

"But how do you not blush or anything?" Ginny asked. "You always have a comeback. I heard about you in Snape's class."

Kati laughed. "I was just raised that way, but don't worry, I didn't always have it, it kicked in when I was around fourteen and had to grow up. I was a lot like you when I was thirteen."

"Really?" Ginny asked.

"Yeah, but you're prettier." Kati told her, smiling. "Come on, let's get lunch."

"Is your brother putting his name in the cup?" Fred asked Monday night, when Kati was giving herself a french manicure on the couch.

"Nope." Kati said. "He has to take care of me."

"I didn't let that stop me, and I have two younger siblings." Fred said.

"You also have older siblings and parents and everything. We don't." She told him, saying it in such a way Fred didn't notice. "Where's George?"

"Trying to make Angelina fall in love with him." Fred told her. "Really, it's going to be great if she still thinks its a joke."

"That's not nice." She said. "It's hard to be crushing on someone who isn't crushing back."

"Crushing?"

"Fancying." She corrected.

"Well haven't you been asked out twice and said no both times?" Fred asked.

"I didn't know them. Angelina knows George." Kati said. "Plus, I don't date people I barely know, it's against my rules, I date people I've known for a while."

"What do you call 'a while'?" He asked.

"Three months." She told him. "Then you should be able to know the person really well, but it's not enough time to make you see them only as a friend."

"You have a lot of rules." Fred said.

"You have no idea." She muttered in reply, before saying louder. "So, what do you think about the Defense teacher?"

"He's a little odd, I liked Lupin more, but he's better than Lockheart we had in our fourth year." Fred gave a little shudder.

Kati laughed. "I think it's weird that we're going over the unforgivables. It's like he's teaching us how to do them and not be the victim at the same time."

"Isn't that better than us being unprepared?"

Kati chewed on her cheek. She already knew all of them, and didn't have to think about throwing off the Imperious curse anymore. It just scared her that people around her were going to know them without knowing the true terribleness of them. How having the Cruciatus curse can drive you mad if you're under it for too long. He never said what long term affects were, not that you have spasms and aching pain long after the curse is gone.

It sickened her to no end the innocence here, that in just a few years would be taken away; she saw it, and still had told no one. Not even Dumbledore, but she had never been called to his office. Not yet anyway.

"Kati," Fred waved a hand in front of her face, trying to get rid of the glazed over look in her eyes.

"Huh?" She asked, the light in her eyes coming back as she focused on him.

"You spaced out for a moment there." He told her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She smiled at him.

"What did you do as a kid?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You lived in America, what did you do? Tell me about it. What did you do with your friends?"

She closed her eyes, hot summers and cool winters flashing before her eyes. Seeing snow for the first time when she was eight years old. Swimming in Galveston bay when it was spring break with her friends when it was barely sixty degrees in the water at fourteen. Capsizing a Sunfish sail boat at thirteen. Sunbathing with friends, and getting sunburned after. Sleepovers every chance she got. Going to movies and mall. Her first kiss. She was so happy, remembering little things like her friends taking her to see What's Eating Gilbert Grape when she had a bad day, or the first time she had frozen custard. It was all too much for her too keep her calm exterior, and suddenly she couldn't act anymore.

"I have to go." She said, before she completely broke down. She could feel tears in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Fred asked.

"I have to go...I was supposed to meet Kale ten minutes ago." She lied, getting off the couch, and leaving without a backward glance at the confused Fred she left behind.

She ran down the stairs, going straight to the Dungeons where the Slytherin common room was. She banged on the wall, hoping that someone would at least open it for her. No one did.

A second year girl passed her, and Kati stopped her. "Hi, can you find out if Kale Blake is in there for me?"

The girl looked up at Kati as if she spoke another language. "Pardon?"

"He's my brother, can you tell him that Kati is looking for him. Tall, blonde, tan, green eyes-"

"Yeah, sure, got it." She said, a little weirded out.

"Thank you." Kati told her.

The girl walked slowly to the wall and muttered a single word. "Venish." As if not wanting the Gryffindor to hear.

The Gryffindor did not want to hear.

They were using her last name as a password. Was that a message? Or was someone trying to mess with her and her brother? It was doubtful she would have heard it since she wasn't in that house, but her brother most definitely would. Why didn't he tell her? Secrets wouldn't help them now.

The second-year girl's head popped out of an opening after a while. "He's not here."

Kati nodded, swaying slightly, but shook her head. "I doubt you will, but don't tell him I was here."

The girl nodded, watching as the Gryffindor walked away, swaying slightly with every movement, until she found herself in the potion's classroom. She needed to find the mad who made that password, even if it took her all night. As she told Fred and George, sleep was overrated.

She opened the door, and walked straight to the office door in the back of the classroom. She didn't even touch the door, but it flew open, she wasn't able to control her powers, she was too emotional.

The man she was looking for was at his desk, reading over something, he didn't jump when she opened the door, but he did look slightly surprised to see the Gryffindor standing in front of him.

"Oh yes please come in, there's no need to knock." He says sarcastically.

"You know who I am." She slammed the door behind her, glass jars rattling on the walls from it.

"You finally got the message, it took you long enough." He told her. "For someone with the best grades in the school you can be rather dense."

"No one told me." She told him. "And I'm in Gryffindor you twat."

"I'm your teacher." He told her.

"Not right now you're not. You're messing with me. Why? Is it some sick game?" She asked, biting out her words as a jar or two broke."

"Are you loosing control?" He asked, looking too happy. "Is it true your mark turns red when you get angry?"

"You don't get to know that. How do you know who I am?"

"You look like your mother and her twin sister."

"My mother's family is dead." Kati said, raising her chin high. "She didn't have a sister."

"Is that what she told you?" Snape asked. "I can Guarantee otherwise, Rosalie were in the same year, same house, we even had the same grades."

"Shut up." She told him, her voice rising to a screech. "Shut up! Don't you talk about her! Don't you dare say her name!"

"Or what?" He replied.

Suddenly all the jars on his shelves were shattered, their contents spilling on the shelves.

"I could give you detention for that." He told her.

"We both know you won't." She told him. "You don't want it getting out that you're going through such lengths to torment a teenage girl. I could get the ministry on your ass in ten seconds. I'm under their protection, don't you understand that? They brought us back because we know things that our parents told us, and we're hidden from many others. They need us, but do they need you?"

"What sort of secrets?" He asked.

She laughed, but not a joyful laugh but cruel. "I'm not going to tell you, but do you mind if I say a few things I have heard about you? You're a spy, a spy I don't trust. You're the one that caused the Potter's deaths, leaving Harry Potter an orphan. You have a mark on that arm that proves me right." She pointed to his left arm.

"What do you plan on doing with this information?"


	4. Little Talks

Fear is Power

_"Soon it will be over and buried with our past._

_We used to play outside when we were young and full of life and full of love."_

_-Of Monsters and Men, Little talks_

"Nothing."

That one word rang in the room long after she spoke it. This meeting was a power play, and they both knew it. She wasn't going to bow to him, nor he to her. If he wanted to dominate over someone, he could have made a wiser choice.

"Nothing?" He replied.

"I am the queen of the chessboard right now." She said. "I have power, I have sight, and I have knowledge. If I show all my cards now, how am I supposed to win the game?"

"This isn't a game, this is real life."

She laughed at him. "Really? Is that what you think? Look around you, everyone is playing a game. Moving their pawns in the right places, wrapping people around their fingers, all so they have a chance of winning. This is all a game, and it's sick."

"Then why are you playing?" Snape sneered.

"It was my parents last wish. For me to use my powers to guarantee the outcome." She told him.

"On which side?"

"That's for me to know, and you to obsess over." She smiled cruelly at him, enjoying the way he pressed his lips together in dislike. "Congratulations, you have found someone who won't let you walk all over them. When I push back, I push back hard. Trust me when I say that I will do everything in my power to get you fired."

Snape stood up, advancing on his much smaller student. "And believe me when I say that it will be a pleasure to teach you for the rest of your stay here at Hogwarts."

Her eyes became unreachable, and her face became blank. Her eyes twitched side to side as if reading a book, but there was nothing but the dark man in front of her. When she closed her eyes, a smirk appeared on her lips.

She looked up into his deep eyes, not sure if he was going to try to kiss her or kill her. "We're you in love with my mother? Or was it her sister?"

His eyes grew cold, and Kati knew she found the jackpot.

"Look at you, I wonder what she'd say now." Kati taunted. "I look like her don't I? Different hair, maybe, but I still have the face. Still have the body." She started to back away. "If you tell anyone my true identity you know you're dead. Oh, and tell Dumbledore I wish to see him. We have some catching up to do." She winked at him, before turning away and walking out like she owned the place. Her mother was the same way, but Kati had a little more sass than her. It was inevitable that she would be here to taunt him. It was just his luck that she was smart enough to figure out while the rest of the students that he paid "special" attention to were still oblivious to the motives.

She was smart, beautiful, and dangerous. He couldn't wait to hear what her boggart was the next day; he had overheard Moody telling Dumbledore he wanted to refresh their memories of fear, and he had no doubt that hers were going to be interesting enough to get the whole school gossiping. All he had to do was wait a couple hours.

"I don't think you all are taking me seriously." Moody growled at the sixth year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. "So, put your wands inside your robes. You're not going to use them."

Everyone was quiet, until Kati raised her hand.

"Blake?" He growled.

"What are we doing?"

"Boggart." Fred coughed to cover the word, but Kati heard it.

"Boggart. It's time for me too see what you're scared of and tap that power." He told them

Kati's blood ran cold, she could guess what her greatest fear was since it happened last August. The only question is how she would react.

"How'd you know?" She hissed to Fred, as they stood up.

He leaned down to whisper in her ear. "I know everything."

She nodded, not registering what he had said, and put her wand back in her robes, and let herself be ushered into the line that was sorted by last name, A to Z. She was the second in line.

The boy in front of her had a fear of snakes, something that she didn't flinch at. After he stood still in front of it for a full minute it was her turn.

She stepped in front of it, her heart beating erratically. "You don't scare me." She whispered.

The boggart turned into her dead mother, who looked just like her, except older and blonde, though Kati was starting to show a little blonde roots. Blood was dripping down the front of her mother's face onto the floor slowly, drop by drop.

"You don't scare me." Kati repeated, louder this time, but still not everyone could hear her.

It switched to her father, who looked a lot like Kale, but with dark brown hair and crows feet.

"You don't scare me." Her voice was nearly a yell now, and defiant. She didn't want to show how much this was breaking her heart.

Her brother appeared, that dead look in his eyes.

"I saw him this morning, you're gonna have to do better than that." She sneered. "I've seen worse."

Her brother suddenly stood up, looking normal in jeans and a green T-shirt, and smiled cruelly at her.

"You killed them." He hissed.

"I didn't. We don't know who did!" She yelled back, suddenly all her control gone at the sound of her brother's voice. Her calm exterior crumbling around her.

"I do! You could have changed it if you just worked a little harder! Gotten the date!" Her brother yelled back, looking and acting as real as the real Kale.

"They chose it! I warned them! I did!" Tears were brought to her eyes, and she felt like she couldn't breathe. Everything was beginning to fade, it was just her and her brother.

"You could've done better!"

"You didn't have to watch! I did. I saw them die and I had no one! No one to tell! Not even you!" She screeched, her words barely understandable as it came out in short whimpers. She couldn't draw in enough breath as she backed away, looking broken as her brother advanced on her.

Fred thought this had gone along long enough, and stepped out of the line, and put his arms around her, trying to pull her back, but she didn't seem to know.

"No! I didn't want to! I didn't want to see it!" She shouted, until Fred pulled her away. Moody watching hungrily as he did.

After Kale disappeared and a clown appeared.

The boggart was forgotten when Fred Weasley was holding the crying new girl over something no one but Fred and George figured out.

She watched her parents die.

Kati didn't talk about it with anyone, and Fred nor George tried to make her tell. They understood why she was so incapable of talking of her past, and why she had to leave the room when Fred asked about her past. She was suppressing whatever she saw, and whatever she couldn't tell anyone. She was truly alone in a room full of people.

Snape was nearly the first to hear, and surprisingly from Dumbledore. Not even he, the most heartless teacher in the school, could bring himself to rub her face in it. Even bringing it up would have been going to far to him.

She was called to the Headmaster's office that Friday. Apparently he finally got her message.

"Miss Venish, how nice to see you." He greeted her as she walked in.

"Haven't you heard that it's Blake now, sir?" She asked as politely as she could.

"Sorry, but when I see you I see your mother, it's not the easiest to remember, being an old man." He smiled kindly at her. "Please sit."

She did as he asked, crossing her left leg over her right. "Am I able to trust you?" She asked.

"Yes."

"Show me your mark." She said.

He nodded, pushing up his sleeve until it was above his elbow, where the sign of the Deathly Hallows was, a triangle with a line and circle in the middle. She leaned forward to inspect it.

"Do you mind if I see yours?" He replied, pushing his sleeve back down after she sat back in her chair.

She unbuttoned her shirt, standing up and turning around to expose her right shoulder blade where the small sign was, just a little below and to the right of her neck.

"How did you get it?"

"My mother put it on me when I was ten, reminding me to trust anyone with the mark." She told him, buttoning back up her shirt and sat down facing him.

"What is it you wish to say?" He asked.

"I have visions, and I can through them I can see the future and past." She told him, finally able to tell someone besides her kin. "And I have a message from my parents."

"What is the message?"

"Voldemort is back." She told him, desperately. "I don't know how they know, but he's back, and he will be in human form within the year. You have to believe me."

He nodded. "I do, dear child. I have already heard a few things about that." He leaned towards her, putting his arms on the desk. "Now tell me about these visions."

"Not all of them make sense, Professor."

"Then tell me all the ones that do."

"Past or Future?"

"Both."

"Well, I think this is in the past, I mean the fashion is so seventies." She rambled before shaking her head and carrying on. "I see my mother, and a girl with red hair that is otherwise identical to her,-I think it's her twin-and a black-haired baby. Then I see my mother fighting, and getting tortured. A man with black hair, and he's getting dragged away by Aurors..." Her head began to hurt as she recalled these visions, and she pressed her index and middle fingers of both hands on her temples. "Then I just feel things, I feel sadness and pain, and everything all wrapped into one, like the past is being confused with the present, because I see some people looking the same fighting in each war-"

"'Each war?' There will be another one, then?"

She nodded. "And I don't know who lives. One vision someone's alive and in the next they're dead and they are all in different timelines like things are changing with any small move someone makes-"

"Slow down Kati." Dumbledore told her softly.

"I'm sorry." She suddenly sounded so young, too young to have these things in her head. "It happens sometimes."

"It's okay, is there anything really important for right now?"

"One of your students die in the Tournament, the other wins." She told him.

"Two students from Hogwarts get in?" Dumbledore asked calmly.

She nodded. "I can give you the names if you like, though I think you already know one of them."

"Harry Potter, your cousin." He nodded.

Kati's eyes got bigger. "What?"

"Do you not know of your mother's heritage?"

Kati shook her head. "Will you tell me?"

Dumbledore nodded. "Your mother's parents couldn't afford to have two children, so when your grandmother had twins they had to give one up. Her name was changed to Lily Evans, now known as the late Lily Potter. They found out that they were sisters after they became friends here, even though they were in separate houses. They called each other sisters, but Lily maintained the view of herself as a muggle born, and Rosalie as a pureblood. They both joined the Order of the Phoenix upon graduation from Hogwarts." He watched her face, trying to figure out what was going through his mind.

"And which one was Snape in love with?" She asked, trying not to betray how much she needed to know. If he was going to mess with him, she was going to do the same right back to him.

"Who told you?" He asked, surprised by this young American girl.

"I'm smarter than I look." She said. "He singled me out from the first class, and proceeded to make the Slytherin password my real last name."

"Did your brother tell you?"

"In a way."

"Has he told your brother anything?"

"As far as I know he has done nothing to my brother." She paused, as if figuring things out. "It was Lily, it has to be, from what I've heard he's worse to Harry Potter than he is me."

"Intuitive." Dumbledore nodded. "Your mother didn't exaggerate."

Kati's face became childlike. "When did you speak to her?"

"Four years ago, you were just becoming one of the most powerful witches of the age." He told her. "She wanted to make sure the classes would be hard enough here when she died."

"How did she know?"

"Her sister had the same gift." Dumbledore told her. "She told your mother when she would die down to the hour."

Kati closed her eyes, slipping off the chair onto her knees as she pressed her hands on the side of the desk, as she tried to hide herself behind the desk. "She made sure I was out of the house. She told me to go out for a few hours with Kale. How could she know? God, that's why she didn't bat an eye when I told her she was going to die. She knew. God, she knew." Her voice was barely a whisper when she finished her ramblings.

"She wanted me to tell you she doesn't blame you, nor does your father. I heard about the boggart incident, and I just wanted you to know that they died proud of their children." Dumbledore told her softly. "They were proud of their son, and their daughter."


	5. Dirty Little Secrets

Date

_"My dirty little secret, who has to know?_

_When we live such fragile lives, it's the best way we survive."_

_-All American Rejects, Dirty Little Secret_

Kati decided not to tell Harry Potter about what she found out. Even after he was one of the champions, it would only make him more confused and overwhelmed, and as far as she saw, it wasn't in the cards for him to know just yet. He will find out when it is time.

After the ceremony, she left to spend some time alone while everyone else that she knew gossiped about the four champions. Kati was just tired of it, she had seen enough with her visions. She knew exactly what was coming their way, and it was cruel, not a quest, but entertainment. It was sick.

She went to the bathroom, and warded the door behind her. Kati's roots were getting too long, they were noticeable to her, but no one had mentioned them, very much to her surprise. She figured this could be the best time that she could get the bathroom without interruption, other than skipping classes.

She found the maintenance of her hair tedious and boring. Dye her roots once a month, sadly she let it go a little longer this time, having the bright blonde shine though making her look slightly bald, and who would want that?

Things were going along well though, no one asked too many questions, she was ignored completely by Harry as well as his friends. Invisible as far as she knew, which was exactly what she wanted, she could watch and intervene unnoticed. Perfect for what is coming in the next few years of his life. Even though she didn't see everything, she saw enough to know how bad it would be.

She saw what this castle would look like in nearly four years; burning destruction where everyone's innocence would disappear with the death and pain would reign. It broke her damaged heart.

She had heard seers usually go insane from seeing too many things. She hoped she wouldn't be one of them, but seers never did have a good ending. Not with any story she had heard. History or not.

There was a banging on the door. "Who's in there?" Angelina called.

She shook her head, trying to get out of her thoughts enough to speak aloud.

"Kati." She told her. "I'm about to take a shower."

"Snape give you a bad time?" She asked, sympathy in her voice.

"Yeah." Kati lied. He hadn't even looked her way since she talked to Dumbledore. "I'll be out in ten minutes."

"Take your time. He's a git."

"Yeah." Kati agreed, laughing quietly. "Thanks."

It was good that people gave her excuses, sometimes her brain was too occupied to make them up for herself.

_Keep an eye on Moody._

_-Kati_

She rolled it up, and borrowed a small owl Fred had said she could use, but she had a feeling that it didn't belong to him. The owl was a sweetheart though, zooming around her head as she rolled it up, and staying perfectly still as she tied it to his leg.

"That's a good boy," she crooned, softly petting his small head. "Can you take this to Headmaster Dumbledore for me?"

The owl looked at her and turned his head to rub his face against her fingers. She took that as confirmation.

"Thank you."

The owl took off, straight for the Headmaster's office.

She didn't know exactly what she saw, it wasn't one of her straightforward visions, but she did know that she couldn't trust the man. Reasons could come later, but where she is decisions needed to be made within a moment. She also had warned her brother about him, who abided by her without explanation; he had seen enough of her things come true to realize she needed to be listened to. She still hadn't told him she knew about the Slytherin password though, if he didn't want her to know then she wouldn't let him know.

She turned to Fred. "Thanks."

"Anytime." He smiled as he took her hand, and walked out of the Owlry. It was a chilly November morning, free from classes though it was a Friday. A rare occurrence for Kati, but she was happy Care of Magical Creatures was canceled, maybe she would drop that class, but she knew she wouldn't. She hadn't figured out her career yet, and she needed everything she could get. Plus, it was one of her easier classes, and she liked Professor Hagrid, he was sweet.

"So, it's been three months since you came here." He said.

She nodded, oblivious to where he was going. "Yeah, and we have midterms next month. Are you going home for Christmas?"

"No, are you?" He asked.

She shook her head. "I always wanted a white Christmas, and now it looks like I'll have it." She said, looking at the little flurries of snow as they came down around them.

"Anyway," he said. "Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me this tomorrow?"

She paused. "Like a date?"

"Yeah, like a date." He said cautiously.

She paused again, an inner battle going on inside her. The emotional part wanted her to say yes, the logical said that it would only get in the way. It wasn't against the rules her brother told her though. Dating was never forbidden.

"Yeah, I'd love to." She smiled up at him.

"Really?" He asked, lighting up.

She laughed. "Totally, but I am wondering why you want to spend another day with my face." She teased.

"I like your face." He said, nudging her side with his elbow.

She smiled her true smile. "Good, 'cause I like yours too."

"Where are we going?" She asked as they walked down with the crowd of other students from third year to seventh.

Kale made sure to stay far enough away from Kati so he didn't know she was being followed. Even if he was out with some of his friends, he was hoping to stay close enough to keep an eye on his little sister. He wasn't going to lose any more of his family, and if she was breaking the rules that would only make it more of a risk. He promised his parents that he'd keep her alive, and he intend let that promise be broken.

But he watched her laugh at smile at the much taller ginger boy, and she was happy, not pretending anymore. Deciding to let her have her fun, he let his friends drag him to a shop while Kati and her date kept walking.

"Seriously though, I've never been here before." She told him, peering into Honeydukes. "Oh my God, I've never seen so much chocolate in my life!"

"There's even more in the back." He told her. "Do you want to go in?"

"Is it where you were taking me?"

"No."

"Then, no." She started walking again. "Do you know what the challenge is for the Champions?"

He shook his head. "Nope."

"Really? Not even the resident prankster knows?" She teased. "You once told me you knew everything in this school."

"I have many qualities, seeing the future isn't one of them." He replied, leaning down a bit to whisper in her ear.

She turned her head to whisper back. "Well I'm a bit disappointed. I thought that was why you could keep up with me."

"I don't. I fake it." He replied.

She laughed. "You're pretty good at acting then."

"Not as good as you." He teased back.

"I have years of practice." She replied.

"So do I, I've pretended to be George since birth." He told her.

"You already finish each other's sentences." She said. "I know how it is, by best friend and I do-did it all the time." She caught herself. "We talked the same, walked the same, everything. I know how it is, it's easy to do when you know someone well enough."

"True." Fred agreed. "How long did you know each other?"

"Two years now." Kati told him. "But we spent every spring break, most of every summer, saw each other at least once a week, and spent at least one weekend a month hanging out or at one of our houses. We were sisters in all but blood." Kati smiled. "We could say everything with just one look, and she beat up one of my exes because he cheated. I'd harass hers until I saw them. We worked well together."

"When are you going to see her again?" Fred asked.

"No idea." She told him. "A while. She can't really know what I am."

"Why?"

"She's a muggle, and I was too scared to tell her, she doesn't even know where I am, nor does my best friend, or any of my friends really. I just disappeared." She stopped, catching herself before she said too much. "Please don't tell anyone, it's kinda my dirty little secret."

"You can tell me all your secrets. I won't say a word." He promised.

She smiled. "We'll see."

"I won't rush you." He told her, before steering her into a bar called the Tree Broomsticks, and taking them towards a booth in the back.

"Well tell me what you figured out." She told him. "I wanna know if I'm giving too much away." She slid into the booth, him sitting beside her. "I won't be mad."

"Or upset?"

"I'm good at not getting upset, contrary to belief, mostly our Defense Against the Dark Arts class." She told him, a smile playing on her lips.

He laughed. "Okay, I can do that." He paused for a second. "I know you didn't move here on a whim. Snape singled you out more than most of the others...except Harry maybe. I haven't figured out that yet, but it's fun when you smart mouth him. You watched your parents die." He said the last part softly, as if scared of freaking her out.

She smiled, biting her lip before replying. "I'm not going to say you're wrong."

"We don't have to talk about it any more." He told her. "I don't want to make you trust me."

She laughed, going back to teasing him. "If you haven't noticed no one can make me do anything."

"Oh, trust me, I have."

"I really had fun today." She told him as they walked down the path, going back to the castle. It was deserted, and little flurries of snow blew passed them, settling on their jackets and hair.

"Me too," he told her. "I want to kiss you right now."

"What's stopping you?" She asked, stopping in front of him, and looking up.

He put his hand on her neck softly. "Nothing." He leaned down and kissed her softly. Kati could easily say it was the sweetest kiss she had ever had. It made her feel like she used to.

She loved it.

Fred and Kati became the most obnoxious couple that Kati had ever seen. She was distracted, undeniably distracted. Even she knew that, but it was just so nice to be normal, and have normal feelings for a normal guy and have a normal relationship. Normality was great for her.

"Are we going to the first task together?" Fred asked, when Kati was sitting on his lap on one of the armchairs by the fire.

She shook her head. "Snape gave me detention, remember? I asked him if he ever washed his hair when he asked if I cheated on my test? I thought it was a reasonable answer to his unreasonable question."

"I completely agree." He told her, rubbing his hands up and down her fishnet-clad thighs. "Its wrong to keep you in while there's good entertainment."

"I think that's why he did it. He could've given it to me tonight, but no, that would be too nice." She told him, frowning. "He doesn't have a decent bone in his body."

"I could've told you that." Fred told her.

"I'm sure anyone could. My brother seems to be okay with him though." Her frown deepened.

"I haven't met your brother." Fred mentioned, since she had met all of his that were in his school.

Kati bit her lip, looking away from him. "I don't think you want to."

"Why?"

"I'm the last of his family, you don't think that he won't complicate anything? He's going to try to break us up if theres anything emotional. Trust me, you don't want to meet him just yet."

"Emotional?"

"He'd probably be more okay if you were fucking me than if you liked me." She told him honestly. "It's complicated with him."

"I'd kill any guy that was fucking my sister." Fred told her.

She laughed. "That would make things a lot better if my brother was like that."

"So, no telling your brother?" Fred asked.

"Yeah, let's just keep you my dirty little secret, okay?" She teased before kissing him.


	6. Trouble

Detention

_"I'm trouble ya'll I got trouble in my town._

_You think you're right, but you were tried to take me, but I knew all along._

_You can take me for a ride, but I'm not a fool so you better run and hide."_

_-Pink, Trouble_

Kati was sent to organize the Potion's ingredients with Snape's supervision. She tried to keep him talking because the silence was deafening to her ears. It always was, even as a child she needed to have some noise before going to sleep. Her mother had given her a music box just for that reason.

"I know Harry's going to be out there today." She rambled. "I wish I could see, I don't think any fourteen year old boy should go through what he has. He's still a child."

Snape remained silent.

"I've heard some stuff about him from Fred, since he's been here he's face Voldemort twice, imagine meeting the person that killed your parents." She shook her head. "I don't think I could do that."

Snape still didn't respond in anyway.

"When I was younger I hated the cold." She told him. "When I got older I liked it, but from six until thirteen I hated it. I refused to go outside or do anything much other than read under a blanket. I put candles around my room, and once when the heater went out, our whole house was covered in them, so whenever it got too cold we'd light candles. Not that it's cold much in southern Texas, but still. Those few weeks a year were killer for me. Here isn't much better, I still dislike the cold, but the cloaks are like carrying a blanket with you without looking like you should be in an asylum."

Still no response.

She turned around, facing the man, who looked down at a copy of the Daily Prophet, though she knew he was looking at her before.

"Talk to me." She told him. "Come on, this is my first detention, you should be proud, I'm missing the first task for this. Trust me though, I was going to skip until you made me come straight here after lunch. You probably knew that, though."

"You seem to be doing enough talking for both of us." Snape muttered.

"Ha! He speaks!" Kati cheered before saying normally. "I'm allergic to silence. It's a curse really."

"I can tell by how you can't shut up." He frowned.

"Then you say something..." she muttered. "Tell me about my mother and aunt."

Silence.

"Come on, you can't tell me. You should tell me. You brought them up the first time." She said, sass in her tone. "You didn't have to tell me you knew my name, but you did. Deal with the consequences."

"I don't have to do anything you say." Snape snapped.

Kati laughed, as she usually does when someone snaps at her. "Come on, Severus Snape, please tell me what my mother was like as a teenager. I know my mother was pregnant with my brother in her last year, the whore." She would joke about that with her mother.

"Don't call your mother that." Snape .snapped

She laughed again, she had a good relationship with her parents, and they were undeniably honest with each other. They may have rolled their eyes when she ever said that, but they knew that it was an endearment. "What? I can unless I get pregnant next year. She even said so."

"It's disrespectful." He told her.

"It's joking." She replied, with a roll of her eyes, as she moved some bottles around. "If you think that's bad you should've heard some of our conversations."

"Haven't you heard that you should respect the dead?" He replied.

"Yes, but just because they're dead doesn't make them suddenly perfect." Kati told him, turning over her shoulder to look at him. "They're still the same old person, flaws and all. They just won't make any more mistakes or anything." She turned back around and took a few bottles off the shelves, and putting them on top of the cupboard.

Silence.

She turned around again, seeing if he was betraying his anger in his face, but it was just as emotionless as ever. She disliked that. When she could read someone she could tell how far she could push them. With him, she still had no idea. "Honesty helps you get over things. Try it, because you're too bitter, and I hate unhappy people." Kati told him, harshly. "I used to love Potions back home, you make me dread it. It kinda pisses me off."

"This class isn't about liking it, Venish."

"So? I like Transfiguration, and Professor McGonagall's strict." She told him, getting off the stool to stand in front of him. "Do you hate me?"

"Don't take it personally, I hate everybody." He told her.

"I'd rather have you hate me than being indifferent to me." She shrugged, hopping off the stool. "In other news, I'm done." She skipped to the front of his desk.

"Alphabetical?"

"Yep."

He got up to look at her work, making sure she didn't sort only the first row. "All right then." He went back to his desk and sat down, picking up his paper again.

"What? No, 'good job, Venish, you're not completely blonde!'" She asked, sass in her voice

"You're not blonde." He told her.

She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath; she had forgotten that. "Yeah, well..."

"You dye your hair, I knew it." He smirked.

"Forget it." She replied. "It's none of your business. Stop calling me Venish too, it's only going to make you call me it in class and have my cover blown."

"Why can't people know your real name?" He asked.

"Deatheaters know I know things, it was written on the wall in my parents blood." She told him, shrugging uncomfortably. "So keep it quiet?"

He nodded stoically.

"Can I go now? I probably missed the whole task, I've been here since." She looked at the clock on the wall. "Four hours."

"It was your fault." He told her.

She shrugged. "That's what you say."

"So it's my fault?" He replied, tiredly.

"Yeah, I mean you hate me and all. I bet that if Harry wasn't in the tournament you'd be having him here too." She replied. "So can I go, or what?"

"Sure, you can go." He told her, having a little too much fun screwing with Kati's life.

She gave a mock-bow. "Thank you so much." She turned on her heel and walked out of the room, thankful that he didn't make her stay longer, but furious that he made her miss the first task.

She made her way to the common room as fast as she could, wanting to do nothing more than get the recap of the task from one of her friends. Her arms were sore from picking up the heavy bottles and moving them around for four hours, (he didn't let her use magic, if he did she could have only missed the first champion).

She walked into a large party, Fred and George had Harry on their shoulders, and everyone was cheering as they passed around a shiny gold egg, until he opened it.

Shrieking, that's what the egg did, making Kati cover her ears and Fred and George drop Harry so they could do the same.

After the egg was closed someone shouted. "What the bloody hell was that?" And everything got really quiet.

"Go back to your knitting everyone." Fred told everyone before seeing Kati by the portrait hole, and pushing though the crowd to get to her. "Hey," he said, giving her a quick kiss on her lips.

"How was it?" She asked.

"Oh you know, dragon-y things." He said. "They all got their eggs." He said, pointing towards Harry who was holding the golden egg. "I take it you heard what happens when you open it."

She nodded. "Yeah. That's not the most pleasant sound. Do you think harpies are the next challenge? They make a sound like that, but they don't lay eggs...mermaids sound like that above water and they lay eggs..." She rambled. "But their eggs are green or blue not gold...I don't think anything lays a golden egg, unless it's from a nursery rhyme."

"Maybe you should've been in the Tournament." He told her. "Calm down."

She laughed. "Sorry, I just spent the last four hours with Snape with nothing but my head to keep me company. He's not very talkative, and that annoys me. I hate it being quiet."

"Yeah, Angelina caught you singing to yourself." He grinned. "She mentioned that when we were going down to the task."

"Yeah, well she sang the chorus with me." Kati replied, grinning right back at him.

"She didn't mention that." Fred told her.

"Maybe I shouldn't have then..." She trailed off before laughing. "Forget about it, will you?"

"What do I get in return?"

She pulled on the front of his shirt so she could kiss him, biting his lower lip teasingly, before pulling away and winking at him.

"Look, my dorm is empty..."

She laughed. "Do you think I'm that easy?"

"No, I think you're the hardest girl I know." He replied.

"I'm going to ask Harry if he wants to be healed." She told him, walking backwards towards her cousin.

"Really? Is that one of your many powers?" He teased, following her.

"Oh, yes." She winked, before turning to find Harry.

"Hey," she said, standing in front of him where he was sitting on the couch. "I haven't really met you yet, but I'm Kati Blake, and I don't really like how you're face is looking."

A flash of offense crossed his face.

"I mean your scratches." She told him, laughing. "I can fix them if you want."

Harry looked a bit weirded-out, but nodded. "Sure."

"Cool." She sat on the arm of the couch and put her legs on his lap, tilting his face to the side so the scratches were in the light. "Fred, stand right here." She said, pointing where they could be seen by most of the common room.

She touched his face lightly with her fingertips, a soft golden glow coming from them. Wherever she traced her fingers new skin would be, light pink and a little tender, but fully healed.

She leaned in and whispered. "Don't tell a soul."

His hand went to his face. "I won't."

"Good boy," she got up. "Maybe we can do this again sometime." She winked before turning to Fred. "Come on, let's go." She grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the common room.

"The Yule Ball, is a dance." McGonagall told the Gryffindor class.

Kati leaned over to Angelina. "Do you think that Snape's dancing with the Slytherins right now?" She asked, as Ron, Fred and George's little brother was called to dance with McGonagall.

"Please tell me this is true! Be sure to ask your brother when this is over." She whispered, not taking her eyes off their head of house and the fourteen year old redhead.

"Just imagine." She cleared her voice and made it deeper, doing a bad impression of their potion master. "One two three. No, you're doing it wrong Blake. Don't kill yourselves, it would be a mess for me to clean up."

Angelina covered her mouth to try to muffle her giggle a bit. "No, he'd tell them he'd make one of the others do it, and call them dunces."

"Asshole." Kati muttered with a giggle, making Angelina giggle again.

"Everyone on your feet." All the girls but Kati and Angelina stood up.

"Don't you want to dance? You have a boyfriend to force." Angelina told her.

Kati laughed as she shook her head. "I'm more making fun of the dancers before finally ditching to make out kind of girl."

Angelina laughed. "At least you're honest."

Kati shrugged; it was one of the few things she could be completely honest about. "Plus even in these babies-" She stuck out her feet, witch four inch heel Mary-Jane pumps were attached to. "I'm still a bit too short for him."

"You're adorable together. Honestly I always thought he would end up with some blonde." Angelina told her.

Kati had to bite her lip too keep from laughing. "I've been blonde."

Angelina raised her eyebrows. "So which have more fun?"

"The ones with the big tits." Kati winked, before looking up to see her boyfriend grinning down at her. "Hey babe."

"Are you going to make me dance with you?" He asked.

"At least once at the ball." She told him. "Just so I can say I did."

"What about now?" He asked.

"I'm considering it."

"I want to see everyone with a partner!" Mcgonagall said loudly.

Kati looked at Angelina. "Seriously, picture Snape doing this." She got up, and took Fred's hand. "Come on, humor me."

George grabbed Angelina's hand and pulled her to her feet.

"What do we do?" She asked.

"No idea." Fred said. "I was too busy making fun of Ron to pay attention."

"Well let's start with the basics." She put his hand on her hip, and took his right with her left before putting her other hand on his shoulder. "God, this is gonna be hell, isn't it?"

It didn't end up being too bad, if she was they were released they barely paused a second before running away, giggling as they went.

After a while they just sort of swayed back and forth, laughing as other partners got in fights and such from stepping on each other's feet. They were happy only forth years and up were there, once

"I'll see you later." Kati told Fred, giving him a quick peck on the lips when they got to the great hall.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"I'm having dinner with my brother. I need to find out if Snape really did teach them, and how it went." Her voice was so excited, like Christmas had come early.

He laughed. "Go, have fun."

"Thanks babe," she winked, backing away from him before skipping to the Slytherin table to find her brother, who was talking to some of his friends.

"What do you need, little sister?" He asked, barely looking up at her as he said this. "Come to have dinner with us?"

"Yeah. Did Snape teach you to dance?" She asked, getting into the empty seat beside him.

His friends chuckled, as if reliving it.

"Yep." He told her. "John, Serena, Dom." He pointed at a dark haired guy, then an auburn haired girl, then a blonde guy. All of them very pale, as if they were rarely in the sun, which from what she's seen so far isn't around much in Britain. They seemed nice enough though. "This is my sister, Kati."

"Hey," she said. "Anyway, was it great? Angelina and I couldn't stop laughing at the thought when I brought it up. I just had to know."

"Why aren't you eating?" Kale asked, before shoving a fork-full of food into his mouth.

She shrugged. "Not hungry."

"You've spent the last two hours dancing, eat this." He thrust a roll of bread into her hands.

She turned to his friends. "Does he do this to you too? Force you to eat." She held up the bread, staring at it like he had just given her a raw fish.

"Not usually." Serena said, watching them like a movie. "You don't look very alike, for siblings, though."

She covered her brother's ears and looked at them in mock-seriousness. "He's adopted, but we decided not to tell him so shhh." She closed her eyes and hissed out her shushing.

Kale pushed her away from him. "You're the one that's adopted."

"That explains why I'm pretty and you're not." She rolled her eyes. "Tell me about Snape."

"It actually wasn't too bad." Serena told her. "He's all right to us."

"Because you're in his freaking house!" Kati replied. "He's an asshole to me!"

Kale looked at his sister incredulously. "You asked if he ever washed his hair two weeks ago."

"He asked me if I cheated on my test when I was the first one done." Kati defended. "I figured both questions had the same answer."

The blonde guy, Dom, pressed his hand against his face, and tried to hide his laugh. While the others looked to Kale to see his reply.

"You're such a bitch." Kale told her. "Stop sassing your teachers."

They looked at Kati.

"I'll stop when he stops making it so fun." She replied, taking a bite of the bread he had given her, not putting anything on it. "I'm still getting good grades."

They looked at Kale.

He put down his fork. "Are you flirting with him?" Kale asked, rubbing his face with his hands.

Kati looked disgusted. "Ew, I don't wanna fuck that." She gestured towards where he sat at the teacher's table. "Come on man, I have good taste."

"So fucking a ginger's better?" Kale laughed.

Kati blanched. "I'm not fucking him, and how do you know about that?"

"You're not exactly subtle." He told her. "You just want to cause trouble."

She shrugged. "True. Why didn't you mention it before?"

"I thought it would be fun to bring up now." He told her, with a roll of his eyes. "Now tell me, is he the one that helped you with your trunk?"

Kati smiled as she nodded. "See? I finally picked a nice guy."

"Yeah, yeah. Sure. We'll see within a few weeks, won't we?"


	7. Why Can't We Be Friends

_"Why can't we be friends?_

_Why can't we be friends?_

_Why can't we be friends?_

_Why can't we be friends?"_

_-War, Why Can't We Be Friends._

"Is that the dress your mother got you?" Kati asked Ginny, she was asked to the ball by Neville Longbottom, who was in the same year as Kati's cousin, Harry Potter.

Ginny nodded. "I wish it was nicer..."

Kati shook her head. "I can help. Put it on."

Ginny did as she was told, it wasn't exactly a bad dress, just outdated, and not at all timeless. It looked like the seventies was all in one dress with bright colors and no curves. Kati couldn't let her go to the Yule Ball like that. It was in her personal duty as "big sister" to save her from the monstrosity.

Kati went to work on the layers of tulle, all in dark blue, light blue, green, purple or pink, before shredding it until it just had the light blue silky slip that matched Ginny's eyes perfectly.

"Okay, step one done." She told Ginny, tapping her want on her upper lip. Ginny did have a good body, and Kati wanted her to show it a bit in a non-slutty way. Kati looked up at her. "Do you trust me?"

Ginny shrugged. "Sure."

Kati nodded, biting her lip, and circling Ginny, who was standing on her trunk in the third year's dormitory.

Kati kneeled beside Ginny's left leg, summoning her sewing collection she brought with her from home. "My mother taught me how to sew when I was younger, and I was all right." She muttered. "I used magic though..."

"I trust you." Ginny said, but there was an uncertain note in her voice, and Kati could tell she was closing her eyes.

Kati nodded, using her wand to sever the dress until just above her knee, and had the needle and matching thread come up behind her, hemming the fabric so it didn't fray at the ends. Then she went to the back, where it was a simple back with no interest, she stared at it a moment before tying back her hair. The slit up her leg was easy enough, this is where it could get tricky. With magic she could make it strapless, and have a lace tying up the back if she could get the top to be sturdier, but the slit is all she could do with it on her body.

Kati got a measuring tape and took her measurements, before jotting them down on a piece of paper.

"What are you doing?" Ginny asked, opening her eyes.

"I can't do anything more with it on your body." Kati told her honestly. "If you give me all of this I can do it in my free time, and I can see what I can do."

"Really?" Her eyes filled with gratitude. "Thank you!"

Kati smiled, Ginny reminded her of herself just a few years ago, all innocence intact. "But you're going to have to trust me fully."

Ginny nodded. "Okay."

"And do whatever I tell you to." Kati added. "I need you to try this on before it's finished, so you're gonna have to come to my dorm every night until I'm done, okay?"

"That's nothing, you're going to be sewing forever!" Ginny told her. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She hugged Kati, who was smiling as she hugged her back.

"Don't thank me just yet, you might hate it."

Kati searched through her bag of fabric that she had left over from previous projects, searching for a blue, green, silver, or white lace. She pulled out a spool of silver, and squealed in triumph.

She felt closer to her mother as she did this. They would always sew together whenever they were home alone with nothing else to do. The had made dresses, pajamas, skirts, shirts, pants, nearly everything, but never a ball gown. Kati was just guessing on how to do most of this. Even when she found wires that she straightened out to be put in a corset, she carefully made little pockets to slip them into, even with magic.

It seemed to work well enough though. There was enough body to hold up on her torso, mostly after she added little silver rings to the back so the ribbon could flow through it to tighten or loosen the corset top as needed. She felt immensely proud of herself when she did that. Of all the career paths she had seen, maybe she shouldn't have overlooked being a seamstress; she seemed to have a natural talent for it.

The next day, she turned to the pile of tulle she had on her trunk. Green and pink were both out of the running to be put back on the dress, but the dark blue and purple did go very well together, with their long strips.

Kati charmed them onto the dress, every few pieces of dark blue she would add the dark purple. When Ginny tried it on, she was so impressed by Kati's skills she asked if there was anything if Kati couldn't do. Kati shrugged, and laughed as her friend twirled in front of the blanket she had transfigured into a mirror for her friend to see herself in.

On the last day of her working on Ginny's dress, she cut the leftover pieces of dark blue and purple tulle into little half-circles, pleating them before charming them on in a fish scalelike pattern, and admired her work. If she did it without magic it could have taken months, but with magic only took a few days.

Ginny sang her praised for the rest of December, bragging that she would be getting dressed with a sixth year, which somehow pissed-off one of her other friends, Hermione Granger. Who Kati had heard of, but never met, unlike most of the people in her house who she was on a first-name basis with.

Classes ended and homework was given for over the holidays, not much to Kati's relief. She had another meeting with Dumbledore on Boxing day to tell him anything she had seen, or for him to answer her questions about her parents, or if they had found her parents murderers yet. She knew they hadn't though, otherwise he would have called her straight there.

Still, she hoped.

Kati wasn't doing much, just braiding Ginny's hair instead of doing homework that she should be doing so she wouldn't worry about it over the rest of break. Kati always wanted a little sister, though she was told by everyone that if she ever got one she would think the opposite.

"Kati," Fred called from across the common room.

"What?" She called back, looking up from her intricate braid.

"Go to the ball with me?"

She scoffed. "Who else would I be going with?"

"See," Fred turned back to his brother. "Piece of cake."

Kati laughed. "Stop torturing the poor boy, I have half a mind to go with him if you're being so mean."

"Ha!" Ron grinned back.

Fred pouted at her, making her laugh.

"You know I wouldn't." She told him. "I'm too loyal. I really should've been in Hufflepuff, not a brave bone in my body."

"I thought you said you had no Hufflepuff in you."

"That's what the hat said."

Ron's face fell, realizing that she wouldn't agree to go with him. "Damn."

Kati laughed, before tying off the braid she was doing to stand up and walk towards them. "Come on, Ron. You can't expect me to choose you over my boyfriend."

"Fine, but Harry needs a date too." Ron said, before turning to Harry. "I got a great idea. Ginny," he pointed at his sister. "You go with Harry." He pointed to his best friend who was standing right next to him, and was smiling before

Ginny blushed. "I can't."

"Why?" Ron asked, bewildered.

"She's already got a date." Kati supplied, putting an arm around each of the boys. "You see, Ginny Weasley is a hot commodity around here. Everyone wants a piece of her-I swear to God, Fred if you make that dirty you can't touch me for a month, and I will go to the ball with your brother.-and if you want her," she hit Harry with her hip. "You're gonna have to get in line, 'cause her dance card is _full._" She teased.

"Oh Merlin." Said a voice from behind her.

Kati got a confused look on her face, before turning around to see a skinny, bushy haired, but pretty girl on the behind the back of the couch.

"Can I help you?" She asked.

"Don't tell Ginny she's only wanted for her body." The girl told her.

Kati paused for a second, as if solving a difficult math problem in her head."Hermione Granger." Kati whispered quietly as she snapped her fingers before pointing at her. "I never said anything about her body though, so your argument is flawed."

"Well what else would _you _be saying about her?" Hermione asked.

Kati crossed her arms across her chest, her eyebrows rising. "What is that supposed to mean, fourth year?"

"Hey, guys..." Ron tried to butt in, but Fred stopped him.

"No, she's gone to the scary place, boys. Step back carefully." Fred told them, not taking his eyes off the back of his girlfriend's head.

"Well you walk around here in your little heels, and with your fitted blouses, and your makeup always done, everything about you screams superficial." Hermione told her.

"Are you stereotyping me?" Kati asked incredulously. "Really? You don't even know me. That's trying to look good, because I want to. Is that against the law Hermione?"

Hermione seemed a little surprised that the older girl knew her name. "Of course not, Kati."

"You can't call me that." Kati told her. "Only people who are nice can call me that, you can call me Blake, along with Severus Snape." Kati tried to remind herself not to bite back too hard at the girl, she remembered what it was like to be fourteen.

"Did your parents call you Blake too? Is that why they sent you here?" Hermione snapped.

Within ten-seconds, Hermione was pressed against the wall, with Kati's arm to the girl's neck, pressing on it lightly, glass was rattling, be it from the windows or a water glass, or an ink bottle. Her emotions were running wild through her: fury, sadness, anger. Nothing pretty was running through her now. She looked just as dangerous as she truly was.

"Don't you dare bring up my parents." Kati hissed, trying to keep everything under control, she may be able to hold a lot back, but bringing up her parents, in her mind, gave her whatever right she needed to do harm onto someone else.

"Why? Scared of getting a little truth on you?" Hermione hissed back.

"My parents are dead." Kati pronounced each word carefully, baring her teeth at the younger girl. "Do you want to know what they did to them?" She leaned in and hissed in the girl's ear. "There wasn't even enough left to bury. The walls were stained in blood. Now tell me again, why I am here." She pulled away, her blue eyes looking into Hermione's frightened brown ones, daring her to utter a single word.

She didn't say anything, Kati could barely hear her breathe.

"I thought so." Kati slapped the wall beside her head, and stormed out of the common room. Fred quickly following her, hoping to calm her down before she threatened any first years.

Hermione rubbed her throat, staring at the portrait hole for a moment before muttering. "Venish."


	8. Holy Ground

_"But I don't wanna dance if I'm not dancing with you._

_Tonight I'm gonna dace like you were in this room._

_But I don't wanna dance if I'm not dancing with you."_

_-Taylor Swift, Holy Ground_

"She's a bitch," Fred said squeezing her a bit.

Kati was curled nearly in a ball on his lap. They were in an abandoned corridor in some part of the castle Kati had rarely been in, she thought it was near Divination, but couldn't be sure. She wasn't crying, and that concerned Fred. Not that he was good with crying girls, but he did know what was going through her head, now she was just emotionless, and that scared him a bit. When he caught up to her here, she looked at him like she couldn't see him, her eyes weren't glassy, or red-rimmed like she had been crying, they were just unseeing.

Kati gave him the smallest of nods. He couldn't see her face since she was looking away, and the left side of her face was pressed against his chest.

"She doesn't know anything." Fred went on. "She's just jealous that Ginny looks up more to you than her." He kissed the top of her head.

Kati wanted to tell him everything. Not just about her passed or name, but her visions too, about her powers which she had already showed him bits of, but not all of it. She needed someone to talk to, and her brother couldn't do that for her. She needed someone away from everything, a confidant that wouldn't be in the action.

She wanted to tell him, and she couldn't. She loved him too much to put him in that kind of danger.

A few days later the Christmas Eve had arrived, and Ginny and Kati were in Ginny's dorm getting ready since her dorm was full of four other girls fighting over the bathroom.

Kati brought her vast collection of jewelry that any girl would be envious of. She had two wooden jewelry boxes, and then a few cardboard ones that she was given the jewelry in. She couldn't bare leaving them behind, especially the ones her mother had owned.

Kati was working on Ginny's hair, having small braids starting at her hair line and going into an elegant knot on the back of her head, staying in place with crystal bobby pins Kati owned. Her vibrant red hair was shiny and silky, and perfect. Ginny looked and felt like a princess.

Kati did her make up next, giving her dark, bold eyes, and rosy cheeks, and a light pink lipstick, charming it all not to fade or run, or feather.

Kati had to work on herself then. She didn't have any too-long bangs anymore, so her face was clear from her hair, which she was thankful for. She took the curlers out of her hair, and charmed them to stay that way. Then she took bobby pins and pinned it all so it was all going over her right shoulder in a thick shiny waterfall that any girl would be jealous of.

She did her makeup next, tracing her eyes with black, and had light shadow, her eyelashes were dark and long, but were enhanced with mascara. She painted her full lips a ruby red, drawing all attention to her mouth.

"You look beautiful." Ginny told her. "I wish I looked like you."

Kati smiled. "Thank you. I actually wished I looked like you. I always loved red hair, I even dyed it red once, wasn't too great with my skin tone though, that dream was shattered." She laughed, looking at Ginny in the mirror as she put a light peach blush on her high cheekbones, before darkening her eyebrows to match her hair a bit better.

"You wanted to be ginger?" Ginny asked.

"Oh yeah. Most guys I knew loved girls with red hair." Kati told her, careful to keep her face still. "It might be an American thing though."

"Are you dating my brother for his hair?" Ginny teased.

"No, for his body." Kati teased back. "We both know you don't want to talk about that though. I know, I have a big brother too that all of my friends fell in love with when I was fourteen. Terrible year." She shuddered before laughing.

"I'm sorry about Hermione." Ginny told her. "She overheard Ron and Harry talking about asking you, and it kind of pissed her off a bit. That and when you were dancing around the common room saying you were the first Gryffindor to get an O in Snape's class last month..."

Kati shrugged. "So she's jealous? I figured, still it kinda pisses me off when someone I don't know hates me, it doesn't make too much sense, does it?"

"I can guarantee that she's not going to do it again. She ran straight to her dorm after getting out of shock. What did you say to her anyway?"

"Nothing really." Kati lied. "Told her to piss off."

"She seemed downright scared after you spoke to her."

Kati laughed. "Well I am a pretty scary girl, you know." She turned around after finishing her makeup. "Now get on your dress, then we can work on jewelry."

They got on their dresses, Ginny tying a bow on the back of Kati's and Kati lacing up Ginny, before slipping on shoes. Ginny was wearing flats since she hated heels, and Kati was wearing silver mary-jane pumps that had a strap around her ankle, and made her gain a little over four inches in height. Sadly, she couldn't be more than two inches taller than Ginny in the heels.

Kati matched Ginny's dress with a pear-shaped aquamarine silver necklace with matching earrings, and ring. Kati wore round diamond studs in her ears, and a miniature crystal ball around her neck that hung an inch above where her dress's bodice started.

"Do you have any advice?" Ginny asked. "This is my first date."

Kati smiled. "Don't not respond to something. If you don't get something ask, if he makes a really bad joke just laugh because he's nervous too. Talk about classes, or funny stories that happened. Talk about how annoying someone is, or hate on Snape. That's always fun to do. Relax, if it's not a good date you don't have to go on another one. If you had a fun time hug him or kiss his cheek goodnight. He asked _you_, remember that." Kati pulled the younger girl in for a hug. "It's gonna be great. He's a good dancer, so you can always ask him if he wants to dance, trust me, I'm going to be forcing your brother all night." She laughed, releasing the girl. "Trust me, you're going to have a blast after you get over the nerves." She looked around, finding her perfume bottle. "Oh, I almost forgot." She took out the stopper from the ornate pink perfume bottle and turned it upside down on her wrist, before rubbing her wrists together, then on her neck. "Do you want some?" She asked Ginny.

Ginny nodded, smelling the perfume. "It smells fruity." She said before copying what Kati did, and put the bottle on her trunk.

Kati grabbed Ginny's shoulders. "Now it's time for a wonderful night."

"Look around." Kati said, spinning around, looking at the snow that was falling from the ceiling before vanishing a few feet above their heads. "It's magical."

Fred laughed. "It was made from magic, so I'd think so..."

She punched him in the arm lightly. "You can't tell me you don't find this a winter wonderland."

"All right, it looks like a winter wonderland." He agreed.

Angelina spied her through the crowd and walked over to them, dragging George behind her.

"I can't believe you didn't get dressed with us!" Angelina said, looking at her dress. "I'd kill for your dress."

"I'd kill for yours!" Kati replied.

Angelina was wearing a gold dress that was strapless and A frame, little beads stitched in the bodice, and in waves on the skirt, flattering her dark, satin skin.

"But you know I couldn't resist helping Ginny and only having to share the bathroom with one other person." Kati grinned. "Plus I got to do her hair. I love her hair."

"I know right it's so pretty." Angelina agreed.

"It's just like mine, but longer." The twins said together.

Kati looked up at Fred, and ran her fingers though his hair. "I should've figured it out earlier..." She said in a far-off voice, before breaking into another smile and turning to Angelina again. "Seriously though. They have the softest hair. I'm jealous."

"You're hair's soft." Angelina said.

"Not like theirs, mine is damaged to hell." Kati told her. "There's no going back for me."

"Stop messing with it then." Angelina told her. "Your bed-head looks nothing like mine."

"I'm lucky." Kati replied.

"I have a feeling we should pull them away from each other, Georgie." Fred told his twin.

"Otherwise we won't get any attention all night." George agreed.

Fred leaned down to whisper in Kati's ear as she was talking to Angelina. "Dance with me."

"See you, I think this is the only time I'm going to get him to actually do the waltz tonight." Kati laughed, letting Fred pull her away from the others.

"What do you think? One dance then we ditch?" Fred asked, spinning her onto the dance floor before matching the other couples in the waltz.

"Maybe a little longer than that." Kati said, looking towards where her brother was dancing with the auburn haired girl, Serena that she had met a few weeks ago. "It did take three hours for me to get ready."

"Three hours?" He asked. "I still like you the most when your in your pajamas on a Saturday morning."

She smiled. "It's a good thing I don't get dressed up too often then."

"Well not all good." He told her, leaning down a bit to whisper. "Your tits look great in that dress."

She laughed. "That's wonderful. I'll try to make them look better from now on."

"They never look bad." He winked, smiling. "I think you're the only girl who wouldn't slap me for saying that."

"I've been desensitized. It happens when your best friends are perverts." She laughed. "You'll never surprise or freak me out with what you say."

"Now you've given me a challenge." He teased. "I'm going to die trying to freak you out."

"As long as you don't die I'll be fine with that." She said as the song ended. She pulled Fred off the dance floor. "Come on, lets watch for a bit. That Granger girl's dancing with Krum, I knew she was gonna dress up someday." She grinned as she looked over at the girl who was in a periwinkle blue dress, smiling happy as she danced with the champion.

"You don't hate her?"

"Fascinated actually." Kati told him, watching her as she moved around the dance floor. "She's strong, I'll give her that, but she needs to stop judging and start listening. I was a lot like her when I was fourteen." Kati smiled, as if reliving old memories. "I might have been a little more doom and gloom though."

"I'd like to think of you as happy." He said, stepping behind her and putting his arms around her waist, and chin on her head. "Are you happy?"

"Right now I am." She told him, smiling as she leaned into him. "I'm always happy when I'm with you."

"Me too." He agreed.

Kati looked up at him. "Want to go for a walk?"

"Whatever you want." He told her.

The disappeared out of the crowd, unnoticed by everyone. Well, everyone but Severus Snape, but he was watching her for all sorts of reasons and obligations. He didn't follow them, but he made sure he could tell where she was. Not that she could ever know.

Fred and Kati returned to the ball right when people were starting to disappear, leaving only a few left. Music played around them as they swayed, not really moving.

"I don't want tonight to end." She told him, smiling. "Can we just freeze this moment and live in it forever?"

"I'd be happy with that." He agreed.

They were kicked out soon after that, saying that the dance was over and to go to bed, but as it was only midnight, Kati wasn't ready for that yet, and Fred was up for whatever she wanted.

"Wait!" She told him right after they left the Great hall. She leaned down to take off her shoes, and carried them in her hand. "Okay, lets go."

They ended up kissing against a wall, their hands all over each other, and her legs around his waist, one leg completely exposed, while the other was covered with her silver dress.

"I wish we didn't have a dorm with four other guys right now." He whispered, breathlessly in her ear.

"I wish I didn't share a room with four other girls." She pulled away biting her lip, before whispering. "Don't tell a soul where I'm about to take you."

"Never."

She put her hand on his shoulders, bracing herself as she jumped onto the cold stone floor and picked up her shoes. "It's called the Room of Requirement."

"I love you." He whispered, pulling her close under the sheets.

She didn't smile like she should have. Her eyes closed, and she kissed him, unable to say it back even though she felt it.

He was the first to fall asleep, and she looked around the dark room, that looked much like her old one did. They were in a queen-sized bed with soft dark blue sheets, and a fluffy pillows. The walls were a pale blue, with white trim, and she could recognize the pictures on the walls that were held up by thumb tacks. Some were of her that her friends had drawn, others of broken hearts, or hearts with knives in them.

She stood up, carefully getting out of his arms and putting on his shirt, which had been tossed to the side of the bed, and going to touch them with her fingers. She couldn't take them, she knew she couldn't, but she still felt like crying when she saw them, then something hit her; she just lost her virginity in her old bedroom, or what looked like her old bedroom with minor changes. For one, there was no fireplace in her bedroom, where the light was coming from, and there were dark wooden dressers that didn't appear here. There were also other things; a CD player, a digital clock, and other muggle things that weren't allowed in Hogwarts. She looked over to Fred's sleeping form before taking the pictures off the walls and making a stack of them in her hands, putting the thumb tacks on the nightstand, and throwing the pictures in the fire.

It was about time she let her old life go.

She didn't cry, she even gave a small smile as she slipped back into bed, and fell asleep. She didn't care if she got any comments from anyone the next morning, because for once, she could just let everything go, and be Kati, whoever she was now.


	9. Trouble Is a Friend

_"Don't be alarmed if he takes you by the arm._

_I won't let him in but I'm a sucker for his charm._

_Trouble is a friend, oh trouble is a friend of mine."_

_-Lenka, Trouble Is a Friend_

"Where were yo-you little slut!" Angelina laughed as Kati came into their dorm the next morning with her hair messed up, and her shoes in her hand, dressed in last nights clothes.

"Be quiet, Angie." She rolled her eyes. "Don't tell anyone."

"I promise." Angelina nodded, crossing over her heart with her index finger.

"Thank you." She said before getting into the shower. "Go back to sleep."

"Don't want to...presents." she crawled towards the end of her bed where there was a stack of presents.

That made Kati look at the end of her bed, to her surprise she had a few presents. She didn't expect more than one, and that would have been from her brother. She didn't have parents anymore, and all her friends from America thought that she was dead.

Kati still took a shower, wanting to get last night's makeup off her, and try to think about what she's going to do next. He said he loved her, and she wasn't supposed to love, nor had she ever been in love before. Fred was special, she knew that, no one else was able to make her feel as whole and special as him. How was she supposed to end it, like she knew she should? It would only get him hurt if anyone found out who she was and tried to use them against her.

She was breaking the rules that both her and her brother had set up...but it was just so fun, so normal. How could she give it up? Give him up? She only just got him, and they were in love. She knew he meant it, because it was after they slept together he said it, otherwise he wouldn't have, right? No, he had to love her, no one ever looked at her like he did. He loved her, she knew it in her blood.

What would her parents say? She was putting innocents in danger, not that she asked to be who she was, but Fred did nothing. He had no parentage that were as deeply in the war as hers if they were in at all, nor did he have any extraordinary powers that would make him a prime target for the Death Eaters to recruit. He was just Fred, and that was all she wanted.

She thought of these "ifs" for a while before realizing all they were; ifs. They might not happen, and there was a good chance they wouldn't if all went well. She could have her love life and fight in the war that was to come. She could keep her identity a secret and have him. She could have it all. Couldn't she?

When she walked out of the bathroom, in a fluffy pink robe and her hair in a towel she found wrapping paper surrounding all beds but her own, the other girls had woken up.

"What'd you get?" Marie asked Kati. She slept to the left bed of Kati and was nice enough to her, they weren't exactly friends, but they didn't hate each other either. She had mousey brown hair and freckles across her nose and cheeks, she was pretty in the girlish sort of way, looked more like fourteen though she was sixteen.

"I haven't opened them yet." Kati told her, smiling as she bent over to pick them up and move her onto her bed.

She picked up the one that was from her brother first, and found inside a red leather-bound journal notebook. She held it up to let Marie see. "Not too bad from a brother, right?"

"Definitely not. My little brother gave me a pen last year." She rolled her eyes.

Kati laughed. "Had a few of those years with mine as well." She worked on the other presents. Honeydukes chocolate from Angelina, same with George, Fred gave her a small gold locket with a picture of them in it which she promptly put around her neck as the small locket hung at the hollow of her throat, and she got a sweater with a note from the Weasley's mother. Apparently Ginny had told her that she wasn't expecting anything for Christmas, and she decided that wasn't good enough, and she thanked Kati for giving Ginny a good influence. She smiled at that, maybe she'd like Kati dating her son then.

Kati picked up the last present, it was a small black box about an inch deep and the size of a CD case. She didn't know who this was from, she wasn't that good of friends with anyone else. She opened it, and saw it to be a large multicolored stone, It had gold lining it and a long thick golden chain. She could recognize one of these anywhere. It was an emotion stone, exceedingly rare, and very expensive. Her mother used to have one of these when she was younger, but she gave it to one of her friends when she left.

Kati picked it up, the stone going black, she had too many strong emotions going though her to pick one out. She looked along the smooth edge that kept the stone attached to the golden chain.

_The darkest ones smile the brightest. The loneliest people are the nicest. The most damaged people are the wisest._

That was the same inscription that was on her mother's. She knew it. She dove to a shoebox under her bed and looked for the pictures from her mother's childhood. She found the pictures, of her mother with the exact necklace that Kati was holding in her hand.

She put in around her neck, and clasped the cold stone in her hands, falling back on her bed, and willing herself not to cry.

She could feel her mother with her as she touched it, felt the weight around her neck and in her hands. She didn't know who sent this to her, nor did she know why she got it. Either way, whoever it was she would find them, and thank them. Even if they only thought they were returning something, it meant so much to her just to be able to hold and touch. She loved it. Her mother was with her now.

"So, how was your night?" Kale asked, as they sat in an abandoned classroom, for their "family time."

"Good, I saw you with Serena, did you have fun?"

"Yes, but we did see something odd, when we were coming down from the astronomy tower, we saw a short brunette, and a tall ginger go into the Room of Requirement."

Her face fell. "Yeah?"

"Did you sleep with him?"

"Yes."

"Do you love him?" Kale asked seriously.

Kati looked down, and rubbed her lips together, and grabbed the stone that still hung around her neck, hoping for it to give her enough strength to do this. "Yes."

"Kati," Kale groaned.

"Don't." She replied harshly. "I know it's against the rules."

"Exactly, you can't be vulnerable." Kale told her. "A war's coming, and we both know it."

"Then shouldn't we live before we die?" Kati told him.

"We don't know that we're going to die in it, Kati." He replied.

"Like you haven't thought of it." Kati rolled her eyes. "We need to win, for the good of all, but can't I have a few more years of innocence?"

"You have no innocence left." Kale told her. "You just fucked some guy."

"He's not 'some guy,' he's Fred!" Kati hissed. "And he makes me happy. Don't you want that?"

"Don't you want to fulfil our parent's last wishes?" Kale replied. "Work against Voldemort?"

"We still can." Kati pleaded. "I still can."

"I promised them I'd keep you safe." Kale told her. "I will carry out this promise."

"Then let me be happy. I told you that I'd rather live for ten years and have the time of my life, than live for a hundred and play it safe." She whispered to him. "Where is the brother that didn't care what I did with my life?"

"He died with his parents. I am your guardian, and you will do as I say."

"Or what?"

Kale paused. "Or you are no longer my sister."

Kati closed her eyes. "Blood is thicker than water."

Kale smiled, thinking he had won.

"But we have other family here." She told him. "Luna, and as I found out, Harry Potter."

Kale's face fell. "What are you doing? How did you know?"

"You didn't tell me about our last name being the Slytherin password." She got on her knees. "You didn't trust me enough for that." She got to her feet. "We were supposed to trust each other, but you betrayed that. I haven't been your sister for a while."

"Kati-"

"See you later, Kale." Kati started running down the hallway, trying to get away from him, and hid behind a suit of armor when he ran after her.

She took the note out of her pocket that was sent along with her necklace.

_It was Rosalie's. It's about time you inherited it, I don't know what she was thinking giving it to me._

She could recognize that slanted handwriting, and in her head she could read it in his voice. It wasn't hard for her to figure it out, she didn't understand why he didn't just sign it in his name.

Severus Snape.


	10. Rules

Rules

_"We run around the rules, we run around the rules, we run around the rules._

_Round and round, two by two, we run around the rules."_

_-Jaime Dee, Rules_

Kati walked to Snape's office, hoping he would be there to open the door. He was.

Kati wanted to hug the greasy-haired man in front of her. It was natural for her to do so. Not a year ago, she was hugging everyone, that's just what she did. She loved being touched, and touching other people. She felt safer when someone was hugging her rather than when they weren't.

"You gave this to me, didn't you?" She asked, looking up at him.

"Figure that out, did you?" He asked.

She looked around, making sure they were alone, before taking two steps forward, and wrapping her arms around the man's waist. "Thank you."

If anyone had seen Snape's face it would be priceless. No one touched him voluntarily, and he didn't expect them to, but Kati was a physical person, she needed to touch and be touched.

She pulled away after a moment and smiled at him.

"What did you do?" He asked, frozen.

"I hugged you." She told him, looking a bit confused as her smile went away. "It's a sign of affection, or in my case, of thanks."

"I don't know why you hugged me." He told her.

"You gave me something you didn't have to." She whispered softly. "You could've kept it, but you gave it to me."

"You're welcome." He said, still looking at the girl curiously.

"Can we stop being so vindictive with each other?" She asked. "I would like you to tell me more about my mother when she was younger, I feel like I barely know her."

He nodded. "All right."

Her smile returned. "Happy Christmas, Professor Snape."

"So, where have you been today?" Fred asked, slipping his arms around her ribs and putting his chin on her head.

She smiled and looked up to him. "Oh, you know, family drama, just like any other Christmas." She turned around, and put her hands on his arms.

"Sounds fun, care to share?" He teased.

"Well, my brother doesn't seem to like the fact that I'm in love with you." She told him, biting her lip as she smiled at him.

"And are you, then?" Fred asked.

Kati nodded. "Yeah, I think I am." She ran her hands up his arms to around his neck. "I love you."

"I love you too." He told her before kissing her.

When their lips met, she was jerked back, not on her own accord. Her hands went to her head and she started to let out this half scream half moan, her head was killing her, like there was too much noise, too much sound for one person to take.

"What's wrong?" Fred asked, but he only made the noise worse. When he cradled her in his arms, she only heard more sounds. She fought to get away from him, and he let her go. "What's wrong?" He repeated.

She crawled away from him, catching everyone's attention in the common room. Her body was out of control as her mind fought to regain it. Once she was ten feet away from him, the voices were tolerable, and she stood up, able to breathe once more.

She knew what had just happened to her, she'd read about it in one of her brother's books. An Auditory Curse.

"What happened?" Fred asked, stepping forward, but she stepped back and held up a hand to stop him.

"Don't come any closer," she warned. "I'm sorry."

"What's wrong?" He asked again, desperate for an answer.

She shook her head. "I don't know." She looked around to see the stairs of the other's in the common room. "But I'm going to find out." She was already pressed against the portrait hole, so she opened it and ran out, going to the one person she knew would do this to her, the only person she was told to trust. Her brother.

He was waiting for her outside the Slytherin common room, leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest.

"What did you do?" She demanded, breathing hard from her run.

"I saved you." He told her. "Love is destructive, I wasn't going to let it destroy you."

"How do you know that?" Kati pleaded. "How can you do this to me, Kale?"

"How can I do this to you?" Kale asked. "How can you put me in this position, Kati? I promised our parents to keep you safe, and that's what I'm doing."

"What if I don't give him up?" Kati asked stubbornly.

"Then I put the curse on him." Kale told her. "It'll be painful for both of you. But I'm going to lift the curse for three hours if you break up with him I don't put it back on you. If you don't, I put it on both of you."

Kati laughed incredulously. "Those are my choices? Are you serious? What happened to free will? Mom wouldn't have done this, neither would Dad!"

"Well, I'm not them, am I?" Kale replied coldly.

Kati looked away from him, tears in her eyes. "You're going to make me leave him no matter what, right?"

"Yeah."

"Fine, I'll leave him. But I will never speak to you again, do you understand me?"

Her voice was hard, and she looked at him, her brother, the only person she was told to trust, with pure loathing.

His lips were set in a stubborn line. "Fine."

Kati wandered around the school for two hours, trying to figure out how to break up with Fred. She didn't want to, in fact her heart started to hurt when her time was almost up. She had to find him, to do it quickly, like a bandaid, maybe then it wouldn't hurt so much. For both of them.

She couldn't cry, she knew that, and she couldn't tell him the whole truth. She had to stick to the rules, and those rules are what's going to kill her. Her parents never said that she couldn't have boyfriends or fall in love. Kale did, and he was-in his own way-trying to keep her safe, no matter how wrong it was.

When Kati found Fred he was in the common room, and he stood up as soon as she came in.

"What happened, Kati?" He asked, worried.

"Nothing," Kati shook her head. "Can I talk to you alone?"

"Yeah, of course." He nodded.

"Is your dorm empty."

He looked at the watch on his wrist and nodded. "Right now it should be." He took Kati's hand in his and they went to his dorm. He didn't know, but that touch only make the ache in her chest worse.

The dorm room was just like the girl's except they had posters on the walls of either quidditch teams, or half naked women, there was also clothes on the floor.

Fred's bed was the closest to the window, and that's where they went. Kati sat on the window seat while he sat on the bed.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it, no words coming to mind. She cleared her throat and tried to start again.

"We have to break up." She looked him straight in the eyes as she said this, no tears coming to her eyes. She was a part in a play. If she does this neither of them would be driven mad with the pain of the curse. With the noise never going away in their head. They would be driven mad, and be put in the same ward in St. Mungo's. That's no way to spend a life. He'd get over her, and she will learn to be alone until her brother had no pull over her, or she had a counter curse to whatever he threw at her. Or even better, she could threaten someone he loves to get what she wanted, even if Fred was long gone by then.

"Why?" He asked, more surprised than she ever thought he could sound.

She looked away from him. "I just don't think it's going to work."

"Why not? We're great together." Fred said, now getting a bit upset. "Tell me what's going on."

"There's nothing going on." Kati replied.

"Four hours ago you said you loved me, not that much can happen in four hours." Fred said, getting on his knees in front of her, and taking her hands in his. "What happened?"

"Nothing happened." Kati lied, pulling her hands from his and walking away a few steps. "I just changed my mind."

"Not even you are as indecisive as that." Fred followed her, trying to get her to look at him. "What's going on?

Her composure broke, and she was letting some of her hurt show. "Because you're against the rules." She finally said. "I can't love you."

"Why?"

"I just told you." Pleading came into her voice. "I can't do anything about it, if I did then we're going to be in St. Mungos within a year." She wanted to tell him, she wanted to tell him anything.

"Don't you trust me?" He asked. "You trusted me enough to sleep with me."

"I trust you with me, but this isn't only about me." She told him. "I can't tell you all of it, Fred. I can tell you that we're not going to be together either way."

"Why not?"

"Because my brother cursed me." Her hands went over her face and through her hair. "What happened earlier? That was my brother cursing me. Before the beginning of the school year we came up with a set of rules, rules to keep us safe, as well as everyone else we met."

"And one of them is not dating?" Fred demanded.

Kati shook her head. "I can't love. It's against the rules, which means you're against the rules." She swallowed. "And Kale is making sure I stick to the rules."

"Isn't there a counter curse?" Fred asked.

"The only one I can find is for the caster to do." Kati told him. "I tried, where the hell do you think I've been for the past few hours? He gave me three hours, and of them was looking for the counter curse, the other was trying to figure out how to do this." She took a deep breath. "None of them went as planned. You shouldn't know this." She whispered the last sentence.

"I don't know anything, Kati." He told her. "What's so special about you and your brother? What makes you different?"

Kati's face went blank. She already broke one rule for the boy in front of her, why not more of them? Why not tell him everything. That was good enough revenge even if she couldn't keep him. She trusted him as much as she could, why not prove it?

"You can't tell anyone." Kati told him seriously, with a wave of her hand silencing the room.

"I won't tell anyone." He swore.

"My mother's name was Rosalie and my father's name was Richard. Kati is my real first name, but it wasn't always Kati Blake, I was Kati Venish, but everyone back home thinks I'm dead. My parents were spies for the Order of the Pheonix, and were undercover in the inner circle of Death Eaters. After the war ended they moved us to America, where I spent most of my childhood being trained by my mother. When I was ten I had my first vision, I'm a seer." She paused, trying to see if she was confusing him.

"What?" He asked, more out of surprise than not understanding.

"We have twenty minutes until we both feel searing pain, Fred." She chastised him. "Do you want to hear or not?" Stress was in her voice, he could hear it, anyone could hear it. She was spilling everything she had been hiding since she came to this school.

He nodded, keeping his mouth shut as he listened.

She told him about her visions, and that she knew another war was coming, she told him about her parents murder, and that they had to fake their deaths to be safe. That she left her friends, her family, everything to keep not only her and her brother safe, but her old friends too. She was homeless, and had no family. He could tell from how she spoke her brother wasn't going to be a part of her family much longer.

By the time she was finished, she looked at the watch on her wrist, and kissed him. Only a short moment passed until they both felt an insane pain, and they were on opposite ends of the room so that it was only a dull pain.

"We can keep it a secret." Fred told her. "Tell your brother we're over. We tell everyone we're over. You said that he'd take it off us if we broke up. Lie to him. We can lie to everyone until we can find the counter curse."

She looked up at him with large eyes. "Do you mean it?"

He nodded. "I'm in love with you, I'm not letting you go that easily."

She wanted to hug him, she wanted to kiss him, but all she could say was, "I love you too."


	11. A New Life

_"A new start, that's the thing I need to give me a new heart._

_Half a chance in live to find a new part. _

_Just a simple role that I can play."_

_-Jekyll and Hyde, A New Life_

"I broke up with him." Kati lied to her brother in the hallway outside the Headmaster's office. "Can you please take the curse off now? I still like to hang out in the common room, and he doesn't know what's going on."

He nodded. "Thank you for making the right choice."

"You make it sound like I had one." She replied. "Can you please go lift it though? I need to talk to Professor Dumbledore alone."

He nodded. "That's fine. You'll be able to hang out in the common room in an hour."

"Thank you." She said stoically as he turned and left. She waited until he was long gone until going whispering the password to the gargoyle and going up the staircase, and going into Dumbledore's office. She already sent an owl to say she was coming today.

"What is it you need to see me about?" He asked, looking up from whatever he was looking out on his desk.

"I need to talk to you about a curse." She said. Sitting down, before explaining what happened, that her brother made her break up with her boyfriend because she loved him. She said she didn't want to be able to be controlled so easily, that she needed the counter curse to be free again.

"What can I do about it?" Dumbledore asked.

"I need you to help me find another counter curse." She told him. "One that can get me rid of this forever."

"Your brother doesn't want you to love?" Dumbledore shook his head. "That's not right, I will see what I can do, but do not do what you do not want to do."

Kati smiled. "Thank you."

"I hear that you have called a truce with Severus." Dumbledore mentioned.

Kati nodded. "I want to know who my parents were. He's going to tell me, hopefully."

Dumbledore nodded. "We all do when the people we love are gone. We always want to learn more about them so it seems they are not really dead."

"Yeah, well, it's more of the fact that my mother failed to mention that my cousin's supposed to kill Voldemort, if not die trying." I told him. "I'm supposed to guarantee the outcome, if she had told me more, I could be helping more than I am."

"You're not supposed to help, not yet anyway." Dumbledore told her.

"Why?" She asked.

"He needs to do this on his own, you can only interfere if he asks for your help." He said. "Can you live with that?"

"If I get my counter curse."

"Then it is a deal." He held out his hand for her to shake.

She leaned forward in her chair. "Thank you, sir."

"Young love is always something to be cherished, not destroyed." He told me. "Your brother is a fool."

"Don't I know it."

Kati was alone in the Library, doing some homework so she wouldn't have to rush to finish the weekend before school started. Fred would probably be with her, but they couldn't be seen together, not yet anyway. As far as the school was concerned, they had broken up, and they couldn't let anyone think that they were even close to friends still. She had to stay away from Fred as well as George.

Ginny and George were the only ones that knew they had to break up because her brother was giving her crap for it. They didn't give them the whole story, of course they couldn't.

Kati was so lost in her own head, that she didn't even realize she wasn't alone until a stack of papers was dropped at the table she was at.

Kati looked up to see frizzy hair, and a stubborn look. Hermione.

"How can I help you?" Kati asked quietly, keeping her face blank.

"I know who you are." Hermione told her, sitting in the chair beside her.

Kati froze, before relaxing her muscles. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Really, Kati Venish? You didn't fake your death and your brothers so you could come here."

"Who's that?" Kati asked, trying to keep up the facade. "What're you talking about fourth year?"

"Don't lie to me." Hermione said, going through the papers the put before Kati, and digging out a newspaper article with her family's picture on it. "That's you." She pointed to the blonde girl.

"Sorry, not blonde." Kati raised her hands in surrender, before taking the article, and pretending to read it. She already memorized it. "It says she and her family all died in their house that started as a gas leak and turned into a fire. She's dead, Hermione, and we just have the same name."

Hermione frowned. "I know you're her. You have blonde roots, your brother looks like him. You're the right age!" She got louder, now talking at normal volume. "Why are you lying to me?"

"Sh." Kati shushed her. "I don't know what you're talking about, but getting kicked out of the library was not on my list of things to do today, so please if you wish to go on, whisper." Yes, Kati was an actress. She delivered this line easily and like she really didn't care, though in the back of her mind she was worried someone would overhear. Slytherins specifically, since most of their families were aligned with Voldemort.

"You told me you watched your parents die, that their blood was on the walls." Hermione whispered.

"And that is not in this report." Kati held up the newspaper clipping.

"But it is in this one." Hermione held up one from the wizards' paper from America. "They had to cover up the murders for the Muggle community. They have statements from grieving friends." Hermione paused for a second. "'Renna Glenolds says tearfully, 'I don't know how she could die like this, she was my best friend, and I don't know how any of us are going to heal from this.' Miss Glenolds, who was one of the people to speak at the Venish's funeral, and one of the many to leave with red-rimmed eyes. Most of the others wouldn't give statements, or were too emotional to speak to us. All of them were muggles, so they didn't know what their actual death was.' Then it goes on to say that what could such a loved family have gotten into to be murdered, or what monster would do this."

Kati had to look away when she read Renna's statement. They had been best friends since she was fourteen, and they spent most of their school breaks together. They were sisters, everyone thought they were at least. It hurt physically to think about her, like there was a dagger in her chest, not letting her breathe.

"I'm Kati Blake, Granger." Kati said, keeping her voice bored, and her face blank. "You've wasted your time trying to pin me to some girl I don't even know. I don't know why you're doing this, but it's not doing anything for either of us. I'm sorry you wasted your time but I'm not as interesting as you think." Kati gathered her books, and put them in her bag.

"Why are you lying to me?" Hermione asked. "What are you hiding from?"

"I'm not lying, and I'm not hiding." Kati said, desperately. "I just want a little less drama in my life, not more from some fourteen year old-"

"Fifteen."

"All right, fifteen year old who doesn't like me, and just wants to get me into more shit." Kati told her. "Don't get me wrong, I'm always up for a good bit of gossip, but this is...stalking."

"I'm not stalking you-"

"Yes you are, you followed me here, and you've been at least stalking this dead girl. She isn't some celebrity, and neither am I, she's some poor dead girl and I...I'm just trying to get on with my life."

Hermione nodded, looking regretful. "You're right, you're right, I'm sorry...it's just."

"It's okay, it's fine." Kati told her. "But this is life, not everything is so simple and connected as you think. Some bad things just happen."

"I'm sorry."

"I forgive you." Kati told her. "See you around, Hermione." With that she walked off, or more ran off, finding some abandoned classroom, and slamming the door behind her, breathing hard.

She was good. Really good. She just talked her way out of being found out with bullshit answers, all because she said everything so convincingly. She was too good with people she didn't know. If only she was that good with people she loved, then her and Fred could still be together publicly. That would make everything so much easier. Instead of sneaking around to see each other, they could hold hands in public like every other couple in the school.

Kati would never have a normal life, she knew that, but now she couldn't even pretend she did anymore. She was surprisingly acquaintances with the most hated man in the school, and whom she actually enjoyed talking with.

It took Kati a while to recover from what just happened, before looking at the clock on the wall. She asked Snape if she could meet him in five minutes to talk. She liked talking to him.

Kati left the empty room, sneaking downstairs to make sure she wasn't seen going down to the dungeons. If she was by someone, rumors would circulate, and she would be asked questions. She detested questions; mostly stupid ones that had nothing to do with the asker of the questions.

She went to his office and found that he already had tea ready for them. He may not be very warm and cuddly, but he did want to get to know Kati, even if it was for no other reason than she looked amazingly like her aunt, especially with the dark hair that in the sun looked a bit auburn. She even had the same gifts as her aunt. The only major difference between them seemed to be Kati's lack of being able to hold her tongue when she gets upset.

One thing that was new for Snape was being admired. She would ask him questions, her large blue eyes trained on his face, she'd smile at him when he would answer her questions. How when she wanted to know more, she would literally move to the edge of her seat, staring at him, begging for more. He was the closest thing alive that could tell her stories about her parents they had never told her, or tell stories she had already heard but from a different point of view. She needed this connection to them; after all she was still just a kid.


	12. Both of Us

"Does it even matter? Cause life is an uphill battle,

And we all trying to climb up the same old latter.

In the same old boat with the same old paddle."

-B.o.B feat. Taylor Swift, Both of Us

"Tell me about your childhood." Fred asked Kati. They were in the Come and Go room. Today it was a mirror image of the Gryffindor common room.

She shrugged. "Nothing really out of the ordinary. We were the classic happy family." She smiled. "Every Sunday night we would have a family dinner. We couldn't be busy that night, unless Dad had something for work. We'd cook together and eat a three course dinner, they'd let us have a glass of wine, and we'd talk. After we'd all clean up the kitchen. It doesn't sound that fun, but it was tradition."

"No, that sounds nice." Fred told her.

"It was." She nodded. "I had a good childhood."

"What about your friends?"

"My friends? They were great. Most of them were older than me, and they'd pick me up and we'd go to the mall or movies. Or my brother would take us, depending on which friend I was hanging out with." Kati smiled. "I was in Texas mind you, so a lot of them were red necks, and proud to be them. A few weren't, but you're talking to a girl who has never shot a gun in her life. I didn't really belong there. I never really belonged anywhere."

"Do you belong here?" Fred asked.

Kati shrugged. "How can I try to belong here when I'm even using a fake name? No, I think I've gotten used to not belonging anywhere, but I do think I'm meant to be here. Belonging and having meaning are two different things."

"So then why do you deal with it? If you were in the house with your parents you could be dead right now." Fred told her. "Doesn't that make you feel alive or something?"

Kati shook her head. "It just makes me feel here. I mean, I'm still living the usual life of everyone here, just with a few more secrets." She paused, thinking. Fred was making her think. Why was she following the boring, usual, remedial life of everyone else? Wasn't she given her gifts for another reason than just to breeze through her classes like they were nothing? Didn't she have meaning? She started off into space thinking a mile a minute.

"Hey what's going on in that pretty little head of yours?" Fred asked, shaking her lightly.

Kati smiled. "Nothing, I'm just staring off into space."

Kati put her tea down, and looked up to Snape. "Why do we live?"

He looked at her for a moment. "I don't understand your question."

"We are all living the same remedial life? We're all going though the same thing over and over again. We don't know what we're doing, but we've all done it. We're all living the same life with no meaning. It's just going through the motions and not doing anything exceptional. I'd say it'd be logical to kill ourselves, but the world isn't logical; it's absurd."

He sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"I think you just answered your own question." He told her. "We don't kill ourselves either out of fear, or obligation, or because we have hope that there is a higher meaning for everything else."

"But I don't get it. Why do we keep playing along?" Kati replied. "I'm not scared of death, and I'm not going to lie and say I'm ecstatic about my life, but I'm sticking around."

"Because you're with the third group, you're actually hoping to make a difference." Severus told her. "And that will be your downfall."

"Why?" Kati asked.

"Because you're going to do something ridiculous to try to make a difference. This world isn't for heroes. You're smarter than that, Venish. Leave it up for dunces like Potter." Severus told her.

"Or at least you think I am." Kati replied. "But you're right. I promised my parents that I would make the right side win, and I will. I'll go down fighting."

"In runs in your blood." He told her.

"I can make different choices than my family." Kati told him.

"So far you haven't." He replied. "The only difference is that you have not become a spy."

"I don't plan to become one." Kati sighed. "I am thinking about coming out with my true identity if Kale pushes me any farther."

"That's dangerous." He told me.

"I know."

"Not only for you, but everyone around you. It's known that your aunt was a seer, and it does run in the family. You will be sought out by every side." He told her bluntly.

"So will he." Kati replied. "If he makes my life hell, he should see what I can do. He may be in Slytherin, but I'm just as sneaky and cunning. He just started to get me mad." Kati paused. "Back home, everyone knew they shouldn't get me mad. They were even muggles, and I couldn't use my magic on them. Now I have a wizard going against me. He doesn't want to know what's going to hit him."

"You're starting to sound like a Slytherin." He told me.

"I can be whatever I want. I only got into Gryffindor because I asked for it. My brother used to make the plans, but it's my turn now." Kati said.

"Oh, and what's your first plan?" His tone was condescending, but she didn't let it get to her.

"I'm going to give him the rules. He can't stop me from living how I want." Kati told him. "I'm going to put my foot down."

"That went so well before."

"Now I'm willing to curse him back." Kati told him. "We're equally skilled, I'll surpass him soon. He's going to be scared of me one day, and I can't wait for it."

"I'm sure he will." Severus replied. "I'm sure you can scare almost anyone in this school."

Kati smiled. "Not you."

"I don't think I'll ever be scared of you." He replied, smirking.

"We'll see."

Kati cornered her brother, shoving him into an empty classroom, and charming it behind them, not letting anyone in or out unless she un-charmed it.

"What's your problem?" He demanded, rubbing the arm she pushed to get him in here. "I didn't know you were that strong."

"Well, you do now." Kati told him, harshly. She stalked right up to him to get in his face. "These are your rules."

"My rules?"

"Yes, you're going to let me do as I like because I have more dirt on you than you do on me." She told him.

"Yeah, like what?"

"Our identities. Out of the two of us, I'm more likely to let the world know." She told him, smirking evilly.

He frowned. "You wouldn't."

"Wouldn't I? I don't have anything to lose, unlike you."

"Me?"

"You have those friends of yours, how would they feel if they found out you liked to them for six months?" Kati asked. "Would they maybe feel, I don't know, betrayed?"

"Shut up, you're the one that's a seer. They'll go after you."  
"I can handle myself. I know what side will protect me."

"I see we've come to the same conclusion then." Kale nodded. "Our parents were wrong."

"What are you talking about?" Kati demanded.

"Our parents chose the wrong side, the Dark Lord's the way for power and respect."

"Do you even hear yourself?" Kati scoffed. "You want to kill muggles? The people we used to be friends with?"

"They didn't know us for who we are, and if they did they'd kill us and study us." Kale told her. "With the Dark Lord they'll be at our feet so gods like us can reign."

"You think you're a god? You're the smallest person I know." Kati sneered.

She didn't see the backhand that made her take a step back with the impact, though she kept her head turned to the side, closing her eyes and pretending not to feel the sting in her cheek.

"You saw it yourself. He's coming back. Nothing can stop it, so why do we keep fighting him? He's the powerful one, join me when I go to his side." Kale told her.

"No." Kati told him. "You have nothing that would make me go."

"I'll kill your lover boy." Kale told her. "Don't lie and say you don't love him, I'm not that stupid."

"You wouldn't."

"No, dear sister, you're the one that's against killing. I think I'd be able to do it given the right cause. This is my cause. With you on our side we will rule the world." Kale told her. "I'll kill Fred Weasley, and there's nothing you can do to protect him. I'll kill his brothers and his sister, I'll even kill his parents. I'll kill everyone you've ever talked to or loved until you have nothing, and then, at your lowest point, you will see that I've been right, and if you just joined me now you would have stopped all that bloodshed."

Kati turned her head to look her brother in the eyes. "Is this how you get people to agree with you? Blackmail? Holding innocent lives above their heads until the love for them makes them choose to go along with your plan? You're insane!"

"Insane, but through." Kale responded. "I'll give you a day to decide. After that, the penalty shall begin." He walked to the door, and put his hand on the door nob. "Can I go now?"

With a wave of her hand the door unlocked for him. She let him leave.

That didn't go how it was supposed to.

Without even thinking, she pulled a scrap of paper out of her bag and wrote four words on it, before sending it to the most hated teacher in the school.

_I need your help_

**Please review!**


	13. Done

_"Done,_

_With your selfish ways._

_Done,_

_With the games you play."_

_-The Band Perry, Done_

"Well it looks like you don't have a choice but becoming a spy now." Snape mentioned when they met late that night.

Kati looked at him incredulously. "How good of help you are. Come on, you're pretty powerful, how about you give me some spell to put his head back on straight."

"It doesn't work like that, unless you want to use one of the Unforgivables." He told her. "What I can do is help you get ready to be a spy."

"I already know Occlumency." She replied.

"But you need to learn to cut yourself off. You can't be doing this work with your mind being filled up with something else. You have to become a new person to do the things you're going to have to do." He explained. "It's good that you're pureblood, you'll be able to get up the ranks quickly."

"I don't want to be a spy." Kati told him. "It's not in my personality."

"You've been lying to everyone here. The only thing you're not doing that would make you a spy is reporting back to someone." He replied. "Become a new person. You can't be Kati when you're over there."

"Is this your way of saying I have no choice, and you're going to train me?" She asked.

He nodded. "That's what I'm saying."

"So I really don't have a choice." Kati muttered.

"You don't want to kill, and so far that what it seems your brother's not going to stop controlling you until he's dead." He told her. "Whoever he was when you were children is over. My guess is he acted a lot like this but on a lower scale your entire life."

"And I let him." She whispered. "I always let him."

"Why?"

"Because he was my big brother, he always wanted what was best for me. He kept me out of trouble." She explained. "It worked most of the time for the first fifteen years of my life."

"And the sixteenth?"

"Has gone to hell." She sighed.

"How are you going to get yourself out of it?" He asked.

"I want to end the war that hasn't even begun yet." She told him.

"How are you going to do that?"

"Become the best damn Death Eater this world has ever seen. I'm going to rise up the ranks and report back to Dumbledore." She raised her chin high. "I have the blood and the sight for it, not to mention the cause to die for."

"Good, because you might need to do just that." Snape told her. "I'm not going to romanticize it for you, it's work, and you will be tortured, and have to torture, you will have to kill and you will never be able to forget your deeds. To become what you have to, you're going to have to kill every bit of yourself that you are."

"I can do that." Kati told him. "What is my life when I could give it up to save so many more?"

"Remember you said that. Training starts tomorrow night. I'll bring you to the Dark Lord when he returns as my apprentice." He told her. "I suggest you don't do anything rash until then. Tell your brother you found someone to teach you, that you have seen the light, but you still want nothing to do with him."

"I'll just send a note." Kati told him. "All will be taken care of. At the least we have three months to work."

"Good to know." He said. "Now go, your grades can't slip because of this."

"They won't; I'm not learning anything new."

"Where are you going?" Fred asked as Kati was sneaking out of the common room the next night.

"For a walk." Kati lied. Not even Fred could know about this. He would try to stop her. He would tell her that she was too young to be a spy. He would tell her that he would be fine without her sacrificing her own life. He would tell her it was dangerous.

"At ten o'clock at night?" He asked.

"Look, you know I can't tell you everything, so I'm just going for a walk okay?" She frowned.

He nodded, knowing he couldn't ask for more information. "Okay. Be careful."

"Always." She nodded before slipping away.

Kati didn't know what she should be ready for. She had her wand stuck in her boot, but she had a feeling he was going to take it away from her, after all, she wouldn't always be able to have her wand on her. She knew enough wandless magic to do without it, but without her wand her magic was tied to her emotions. She could lose control easily if her emotions were too strong. Like when she first faced-off with Snape when he used her last name for the Slytherin password.

The potions classroom was cleared to be an empty space, though Snape's desk was still at the front of the room, and Snape was leaning against it.

"Give me your wand." He told her.

She sighed as she leaned down to get it from her boot, before walking the rest of the way to him and placing it in his open palm. She didn't say a word, mostly because he was being so serious. She had to fight herself from saying a joke, or replying sarcastically. She even had to stop herself from bowing and saying, "yes, master" in the most ridiculous voice.

"What can you do without your wand?"

"It depends on my mood." I told him.

"Your magic it heavily emotional based?" He asked, getting a piece of parchment and writing it down.

"Yes."

"So it's also uncontrollable with certain emotions?" He asked.

"When they're strong enough." Kati whispered, looking down.

"What are some of the things you have done when your magic can't be controlled?"

"Shattering glass. Boiling water or freezing it. I once made lightning strike our house, then my parents made me fix it after I calmed down. I gave my brother a fever once."

"What caused these things?"

"Anger, sadness." Kati told him, starting to feel uncomfortable; she didn't like showing people that she was actually sad a lot. She never wanted to be that one person who was always sad; she'd rather pretend to be happy than let people in and truly know her.

"Then that's what we will be working on."

"And how do you plan on making me angry?" Kati asked.

"Get a chair." Snape told her.

"I'd rather sit on the floor." She told him. She never really liked the chairs here, they were wooden and uncomfortable.

"Then sit." He told her.

She sat with her legs in a pretzel, her hands folded in her lap.

"I will be using legilimency on you." He told her. "You will not resist."

Kati's eyes widened. It was bad enough when she learned this with her parents when she was thirteen, now she was sixteen and doing this with a man she had previously hated less than a year ago.

Kati sighed before answering. "Yes, sir."

Suddenly she wasn't the only one in her head. Snape was fishing for something. When he came to a memory of her and Fred, she thrust him out of it, but when he got to one of her sailing and swimming with friends, she let him watch, but he was bored with that. He wanted something stronger. He found a memory when she was a small child. Thunder was banging and the wind was hissing, lightening lit up the whole house. She couldn't be more than seven. Her light blonde hair was tangled like she just woke up, she had a Pooh teddy bear in her arms. She had a light pink nightdress on and she walked into her parents room.

"Mommy?"

Kati pushed him out of that one too, and he withdrew from her mind.

"You're resisting me!" He accused.

"There's some things I'd rather keep private!" She replied coolly.

"That doesn't mean anything in this. Do you want to be able to control yourself, and what you can do?" He demanded. "Do you want to end this so you can go be with the ginger child you seem to love so much?"

"Yes."

"Then you are going to have to trust me." He told her. "I need to be the one person you trust completely in this world. I can't bring it some uncontrollable child when he returns, I need a fighter. I need a soldier that can react with less than a second to weigh the options. Are you willing to do that?"

"Yes." She said, breathlessly.

"Then let's really begin this time." He told her, before reentering her mind.

She didn't resist.

Kati advanced quicker than Snape expected her too. He was also impressed to know that she didn't need magic to protect herself. She could do hand-to-hand fighting decently. After two months, she was cooling off, able to control her magic through her most passionate points. He dug through her memories so she would get angry, and then taught her to control it. If she wasn't so mad at the time, she would have thought him ingenious.

"So what's our cover?" She asked. "How did you get me in."

"That's easy. You have a crush on your teacher and would do anything to please him." He replied.

"So instead of laying on my back I became a killing machine?" Kati asked, rolling her eyes.

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Well, how about you saw my power and sought me out?" Kati asked.

"Yes, because I'm a lecherous old bastard."

Kati held her hands up in surrender. "You said it, not me." She paused. "Why do one of us have to be in love with the other?"

"Because that is one thing the Dark Lord does not understand." He said simply. "As long as it works in his favor, he won't mind."

"So then we even the playing board and we're in love with each other." Kati told him. "We're both proud people."

"That's not going to hurt Weasley's feelings?" He asked.

"Fred doesn't need to know about this."

"He already knows something about it." Snape told her.

"He hasn't brought anything up."

"That doesn't always mean nothing isn't being suspected." He replied.

Kati paused. "Don't tell me you've been using legilimency on him."

"It can't always be controlled when he's yelling it in his head." Snape replied.

"That's crossing a line." Kati told him, harshly. "This isn't supposed to concern him." Her heart started to pick up again in her fury, though the glass didn't begin to shake like it did two months ago.

"You concern him, so he's bound to wonder what you're doing on late nights, and skipping breakfast in the mornings. Having bags under your eyes, your skin getting paler. You're not eating as much as you used to, and you're more affectionate with him now than before."

"Is that what you got from his head, or what you have noticed yourself?"

"Does it matter?"

"To me, it does." She told him. "You're the one that brought this up, you're going to have to elaborate."

"I've noticed. You've stopped caring if you get caught by teachers, and have taken the back corner seats in every classroom so when you get done early you can feel each other up."

"Shut up." Kati told him. "It's none of your business."

"You know you're going to have to leave him, don't you?" Snape asked. "That's why you're living it up now."

"Shut up." Kati said again.

"So when are you going to do it? Are you waiting until after he turns seventeen?" Snape asked.

"Why can't you just be quiet?" Kati asked. "This has nothing to do with you."

"It has everything to do with me. If you're still with him like this when the Dark Lord gets back we're all going to be in trouble. But you know that."

"If you really need to know, I am waiting until May, which is in two weeks. Fred and George's birthday was on the first. I have to cut myself away from everyone, just so I don't have to live in fear. I'm dying my hair back to its original color. I'm coming out with my identity."

"And when were you planning on telling me?" He asked.

"Well, I figured I'd give you a week's notice." She told him. standing up. "I have Astronomy in twenty minutes. I have to go now." She jumped up, grabbing her bag before escaping the classroom.

What she didn't expect was for Kale to be waiting outside.

"Did you not get the message?" Kati sneered at him; she was spending too much time with Snape.

"I was just seeing how your training was going." He replied. "I can't even feel your magic anymore, you that much in control."

Kati tossed her hair back, sending her brother into the wall. He crumbled at the base of it, and she walked over to him, her face blank as she squatted beside him. "I could kill you. Stop your heart, or squeeze it until it popped. I could turn you to dust with a blink of my eye. I just don't see the use of it just yet." She paused. "However," she grabbed his right wrist, and pushed his sleeve back. "Know that you are cursed." She took his fingers and wrapped it around her own. "From now on when you love it will end in disaster. To you they will be all that matters. You will love them, and they will loathe you. You will fall into the deepest love you desire, but they will throw you into the fires." She dropped his wrist, where her hand was had a dark green tint, like a bruise that was healing.

She stood as he stared at his wrist. He was too shocked to move.

"I'm done with you. I've said it before, you're not my brother anymore." She turned on her heel and stormed away, the sound of her boots echoing through the halls.

Kale stared after her, his shock causing him not to move. He had created a monster, and because of him, she had no weaknesses left. All she had was power. He could tell by the stinging in his veins her curse was there. It would die with him being its victim.

He laughed as he traced where her small strong fingers used to be. He should have known not to try to control her. It always did end up coming back to bite him.


	14. Do What You Have to Do

_"I know I can't come with you._

_I do what I have to do._

_You do what you have to do."_

_-Sarah McLachlan_

Fred and Kati were in the Come and Go room again. Tonight was the night that Kati had to break up with him. She had thought of a million ways how to do it, but none of them said it well enough to make him forget about her. He wouldn't be safe as long as a part of him cared for her.

"So, do you want to stay at my house this summer?" He asked.

She shook her head. "No."

He looked confused. "Why?"

"Because I want to break up." She told him softly.

"What?" He demanded. "This isn't about your brother?"

"No, it's about me." She sighed. "This isn't good." This wasn't a lie. What they had could get both of them killed as soon as Voldemort came back.

"Why not?"

"I don't want to go into it." She told him. "Can we just go back to friends or something?"

"Not until you tell me why."

"I don't want to be with you anymore." She lied, standing up, and taking a few steps away before turning around.

"You don't mean that." He walked over to her and touched her arm. She flinched.

"No, it's not." She shook her head. "I-I'm getting distracted. This isn't good for me. Do you really want someone who lies to you all the time? I could be cheating on you with four different guys right now, and you don't even bring up how much I sneak out of the tower."

"Because I trust you."

"Yeah, well maybe you trust too much. I hate lying to people, and I don't think that I can be with someone I can't tell everything."

"Then tell me everything." He told her, grabbing her arms as she tried to turn away again. "I love you."

"We're too young to know what love is, Fred." She stated. "I'm sixteen."

"And I'm seventeen, how about we figure it out." He replied. "Now, I don't know where you go at night, and I don't know why you go, but I do know that you wouldn't do it without a good reason."

Her heart ached. He really did love her and trust her. She couldn't believe she had to do this.

He kissed her softly. "Come on, let's talk about this." He whispered, pressing his forehead against hers.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. "What we have-had, it's over. I'm sorry Fred, I wish things were different, but they aren't." She got out of his grasp and left him in there. Completely confused by whatever just happened.

One thing he did know, was that she just left him, and she couldn't even give him a reason for it. She was hiding something, Fred knew that. He also knew her well enough to know that she would try to protect him for as long as possible, until he really needed to know. Maybe he could even figure it out on his own.

"I did it, in case you were wondering." Kati told him bitterly an hour later. "I ended it with Fred."

"About time, too." Snape said, looking through the Prophet. "I also should tell you something."

"What?"

"You might not be coming back to Hogwarts next year."

"Why?"

"You will probably be given to the Malfoy's to train."

"Like I'm an object? I thought you were my master-" she smiled as she ran her fingers down his arm. "And _lover_."

"Don't do that." He told her.

"What?" She asked.

"Do that, I'd never be interested in someone like you." He told her. "Save it for the Death Eaters."

Kati felt a little offended, and she always had a problem with talking back to her teachers.

She stood and waved a hand over her body, picturing her aunt. She only had to change her eyes to emerald and hair to auburn, lighten her skin a bit. It wasn't hard, just a bit of wandless transfiguration.

"What about this?" She snapped. "Is this what you want?" She lost herself for a moment, channeling her aunt the best she could from the stories she was told. "Hi, Sev. You'd never guess what Alice did in Herbology!" Kati sat on his desk, taking his paper from him. "She broke the shovel! I don't even know how. Frank was a sweetheart and helped her though." She threw the paper to the floor, and slipped onto his lap, trapping him in his chair. "I know you love me, Sev. We've been best friends since we were kids. I see how you look at me." Her voice lowered to a whisper. "I love you, you know. A lot. I know you want me. I see it in your eyes. Do you want to see me naked? Have you imagined me on my back, begging for you?"

Snape's eyes just stayed wide as he watched Kati pretend to be another woman. He didn't respond, he didn't even move. His dark eyes just watched.

Kati got off him and took a step away, and waved her hand over her, and it went back to her fake dark mahogany hair. Her eyes went back to its usual piercing blue.

"You can't get what you want, and neither can I. Get over it. Get over her. She's a dead woman that loved another man. The proof of it is in Gryffindor Tower now, getting ready for the final task." She sneered.

"Don't say that." He told her.

"She may have loved you, but you betrayed her. You became a racist Death Eater. I don't even know if you've changed, but I know why you changed sides." She fumed. "Either way, don't you dare be snappy with me. This relationship works both ways, _master_, if you wanted it differently you should have told me before." Kati didn't wait for an answer, she just walked straight out of the classroom.

Snape sighed after he heard the door slam shut. "Or maybe I'd be interested in someone just like you." He accio-ed his paper to him, and began reading the articles once more.

**A/N**

**TheEvilPinkCupcake: Yes, this will be the most dramatic story I think I'm writing right now. Ha ha. Thanks for the review!**

**Please Review!**

**Kat**


	15. Tough

_"The way I see it, the hand of fate._

_Did me a favor with the cards he dealt my way._

_Found out fast, life it a game._

_You're out real quick if you don't know how to play."_

_-Kellie Pickler, Tough_

Snape grabbed Kati's arm, and pulled her from the stands. "The Dark Lord has returned."

"Yeah, I figured from the body down there." Kati hissed back. "When shall we go to him?"

"In the dead of night." He told her. "When it looks best."

"What shall I wear?" She asked.

"Anything that makes you look dangerous." He told her. "Be in my office in the hour."

Kati nodded as he released her arm. SHe fought through the crowd, and ran to the Gryffindor common room. She dug through her trunk until she found a corset, and transfigured it to Leather after she put it on. She found a black skirt, and tore it so it fell in strips at her legs, she finished it with fishnet stockings and her combat boots. She had her wand in her right one. She had the emotion stone around her neck, but the gold locket Fred had given her was attached to the ribbon on her corset, and tucked into a small pocket. She couldn't bear to leave it behind. With makeup, she made her eyes dark, and her lips purple. Her hair was long and hung in waves around her. She even made it blonde for the occasion, getting all the hair dye out of her hair. She did look dangerous, and given the chance, she could easily prove it as well. She was Kati Venish. The last in the line. She didn't count her brother as one of them before. Venish was never a name associated with Death Eaters, unless they were spies. Kati planned on keeping the tradition alive.

She ran to find Snape before the hour was up. Dumbledore was waiting for with Snape for her.

"Are you sure you want to do this, dear girl?" He asked her, taking her cold hands in his warm ones. This contact comforted her a bit. She always felt safer when someone was touching her.

She nodded. "I've agreed to this, I will follow through."

"You're sixteen, you can change your mind." He told her.

"I am the stubbornest person that you will ever meet. I doubt I could change my own mind even if I tried." She laughed sadly, looking down before closing her eyes.

"Just like your mother." He replied, kissing her hand. "Good luck."

"Thank you, sir." She whispered, before turning to Snape. "How much time do we have?"

"Five minutes." He told her. His face didn't betray his emotions, it just stayed frozen like a statue in an indifferent expression. He was ready to play his role, but was Kati?

She sighed. "Time's up. Time to grow up." She paused, taking a deep breath. "Will Kale be there?"

"No. He won't even know this has happened." Snape told her in a gentle tone, his face changing to a kinder look as he looked at the blonde girl in front of him. He remembered his first meeting too. "He won't know where they are, or what is going on. They have moved to Malfoy Manor. They are expecting us."

Kati nodded. "Let us not keep them waiting, then." She said this with a mixture of sadness and worry. She wasn't shaking though, which was good because whenever she started shaking she could never stop until she calmed down; she doubted she would ever calm down.

Dumbledore released her hands. "If you are out passed two in the morning, I suggest you go to the Come and Go room to sleep. Your dorm mates will ask questions if you show up late and didn't have anywhere to be. It's better that you are not seen out at all by them."

"Thank you." Kati nodded. "But I'm sure it's going to be hard to explain my clothes. I have a feeling that after tonight I will have to recover before using my magic again."

"The train leaves at eleven. Go to your common room then. Severus has taken care of your lodging this summer." Dumbledore told her.

"Where?" She asked, turning to her teacher, her facing looking childlike, though it was rarely this way.

"To stay with me. We are to be lovers, are we not?" He said stoically.

Kati nodded. "Well then, come on lover." Her voice changed from childlike to adult, she had her tone perfect for talking to a lover. Deeper, but not like she was trying to talk like a man. Sensual.

"We will be taking the Floo Network." He told her. "Together."

She nodded, and walked towards him. "I'm ready." She said, though she did not know if the words were true.

"Well you sure have been trained long enough." He told her, grabbing a handful of floo powder and stepping into the fireplace, holding out his other arm for her to step into. He wrapped his arm around her tightly before throwing the powder at their feet. "Malfoy Mansion!" Emerald flames erupted around them.

They Malfoy's mansion was gothic, Kati noticed, like the Beast's Castle in Beauty and The Beast. Dark, arching stone of the foyer, it was empty with a chandelier above their heads in the center of the ceiling. It wasn't anything like Kati thought a home should be.

A home should have pictures of the family as they grew together. The closest thing she found were the portraits that looked condescendingly down on them all. She felt some pity for Draco Malfoy, even though he was a jerk, she didn't think he knew what it was like to feel safe. Even though her parents were murdered in her childhood home, that's what she still called it. Home.

Snape stepped out of the fireplace, releasing her from his arm. She followed two steps behind him, walking with purpose, and they were immediately welcomed into the circle, though she could see on some of the men's faces that they didn't know why a woman was there.

Snape bowed, as did Kati, showing submission. "I am sorry I am late, milord. We had to sneak away."

The snakelike man smiled. "Welcome Severus. I see you've made what was best with your teaching job at Hogwarts. Who is your little woman friend?"

"Kati Venish, milord." Snape told him.

There were mutterings from the other men, as Voldemort looked over Kati. "Rosalie and Matthew Venish's daughter?" He asked. "Rise."

"Yes, milord." Snape said as he rose from his bow.

"Step into the light, girl." Voldemort told Kati, welcoming her to the center of the circle.

She stepped forward, her boots made soft sounds that echoed through the empty mansion, her head held high.

"You look like your mother." He told her, as he reached for her, pressing his hand against her chest that was exposed by the corset, touching the top of her breasts. His hand was as cold as ice and looked like snow against her warm, golden skin. "Your heart is not racing. But you're positively vibrating. Your magic is just begging to be used, girl."

"I have been trained since birth, milord." She told him softly, so that only he and Severus could hear her well enough.

"You are powerful aren't you? Most people keep there wand closer to their hand than in their boot." He told her.

"Perhaps I am not like most people, sir." She replied.

"Ooh." He cried. "Cheeky aren't you? What can you do without your wand?"

"Anything you want me too."

Voldemort grinned, then proceeded to ask her to do feats not even most of his Death Eaters could do with their wands.

Kati did as he asked. Creating fiendfyre and controlling it as a horse galloped around them, setting nothing ablaze. She made lighting appear out of a starlit sky with no clouds in sight. She made the glass in the room turn to sand and then made it back into their original form. She did great feats, and when she was finished she was breathing hard, her chest rising and falling rapidly. No man in that room would ever want to go against her in a duel.

Voldemort clapped. "I believe you could be very useful to me." He looked at Snape. "How did you find such a fine specimen of a woman, Severus?"

"She just walked into my classroom one day." Snape told him. "I couldn't just let her go."

"Fallen in love with a student have you? My, my, you do enjoy the teaching position you have there." Voldemort laughed, Kati could feel him searching her brain for some of the memories she had created of him and her, and some things that had actually happened. How he stared at her at the Great Hall her first night at Hogwarts. The first time she sassed him in class was how he first noticed her, and she changed it a bit so it sounded a bit more flirty. She kept things with a low rating, like she was just a young girl in love. She looked back at Snape like he was the only man in the world.

"What is your age?" He asked her.

"Seventeen this summer?"

"Then how are you using magic?" He asked.

"I'm allowed immunity since I am American, and since my parent's murderer's are still out there. I need to be able to protect myself." Kati told him. "I am not being watched by the Ministry, the dunces they are."

"And you come here to join my cause?" He asked.

"Muggles are nothing. We should be the ones on top, we have the power and the knowledge. They should be serving us, instead of us hiding from them." She remarked. "I'm done hiding from them. I can not tell you how many times I had to lie to stop from getting caught. Not because I wanted to, but because it was against the law."

"And you want to take on my mark?" He asked.

"Not yet." She told him.

"Oh? Explain, girl."

"If a barely legal girl shows up with your mark, the evidence would be overwhelming of your return. I doubt you want that. The ministry is even trying to cover up your return they're so frightened by you. Also, if you need a spy, I can be a little girl ready to take on the world!" Her voice became sarcastic at the end, before coming serious again. "I am willing to do as you please, and I have the power to get the job done credibly. All I ask is to be given a challenge."

Voldemort looked at Severus, as if he was having some conversation with him. "And I'm sure Severus would like to keep you close by."

"Honestly, I'd be a little disappointed if he didn't." Kati replied. "I'm rather fond of him as well." She did something that even surprised Snape. She turned around grabbed him by the front of his robes, and kissed him like she loved him. He didn't disappoint her by not kissing her back.

She broke away and winked at him. She was the best actress he had ever seen. She played her part perfectly, not skipping a beat in her responses, or second guessing herself. She radiated confidence and power. He could see from the other men's faces that she was just as beautiful, if not more beautiful than she thought she was. He did feel a little bit of pride that he was the one that possessed her. Even if it was only for show. None of these men could even try to touch her because of him. Any man would want her, too bad for him and everyone else she was in love with one of the Weasley twins.

"Welcome to the Death Eaters, Kati Venish. I will come up with a less noticeable way to mark you." He told her. "For your initiation though, I have a Quest."

"Anything." She told him.

"In the summer months you will be searching for the Grail of Amara." He told her. "It is somewhere in the Alps, bring it back to me."

"Yes sir."

"And bring Severus with you. I never send one of my new ones without a mentor."

Kati smiled. "I promise not to make you wait long."

"No one ever wants to make me wait long." He told her.

**TheEvilPinkCupcake: I'm sorry! They had to break up! I tried keeping them together and it didn't work!**

** I will not be updating for a few weeks because of my lack of internet connection. I might get another chapter up tomorrow, but I can't make any promises.**

**Please Review!**

**Kat**


	16. Just A Game

_"See these people they lie and I don't know who to believe anymore._

_There comes you, to keep me safe from harm."_

_-Just a Game, Birdy_

"That went better than expected." Severus told her when they made it back to his office. "You impressed him."

"Good." Kati told him. "Now what is this Grail of Amara?"

"It's a grail that gives the drinker the power to save a life, if it's their own or someone else's." Severus told her. "I can get you the books on it in the morning if you like."

"Yes, well I believe we need to get ready for the trip before we go on it." She told him, before walking away.

"Where are you going?"

"To the Come and Go room." She said, confused. "I believe there is a very nice bed up there waiting for me."

"You don't want any firewhiskey then?" He asked.

She paused, and turned on her heel. "What'd you dose it with?"

"Nothing, I just know you're not going to be able to sleep." He said simply.

She nodded. "Show me the way."

He led her to his rooms, Kati didn't really know what to expect in his rooms. A bare space? Maybe a chair. Nothing as cozy as what she saw. A black leather couch diagonal to the fireplace, and a love seat on the other side. Around the fireplace was a wall of books.

"Wow." Kati told nodded. "Nice place."

"Thanks," he told her. "I'll get the firewhiskey, make yourself at home."

"Thank you." She smiled slightly, sitting on the loveseat closest to the fire, and pushing her hair behind her shoulders and yawning.

He came back with two glasses and the bottle and sat beside her before pouring their drinks. "It was an easy night tonight. I don't want you to think it's always going to be this easy." He told her. "Some nights you won't be able to sleep because when you close your eyes you see all the bad things you've done. When you first kill someone you'll understand."

She nodded, taking a sip of the alcohol. "He touched me. He's killed hundreds, and he touched me. I'm his bitch."

"But you'll fuck him in the end." Severus promised her. "Tonight was a good night. You have his interest, which is what we need."

"For a while there, it looked like you were talking to him through your mind, what was that?" She asked.

"He was looking into my head." He told her. "I was feeding him false memories, just like you."

"What ones?" She asked.

"What ones did you show?" He replied.

"Not much, how you stared at me on the first night, and the first time I sassed you, I tweaked them obviously, but they seemed pretty good."

"Same," he told her.

After a few sips of the strong alcohol, Kati decided she liked how it numbed her feelings and mind. She finished her glass in mere minutes.

"Do you want more?" He asked her. "You can stay here if you like, I have a spare bedroom."

Kati gave him a small smile. "Since you're offering. Thank you."

"Just remember what Dumbledore said about not going to your common room until eleven. Everyone will just think you went home early or had to go somewhere." Severus reminded her.

"When will we leave on our journey?" She asked.

"A few days. I had a feeling he was going to send you after something like that. It's a test to get into the inner circle. I've located it to the Alps. It shouldn't take more than a few days."

"Thank you." Kati told him. "I don't think I could've done this without you."

"Don't sell yourself short." He told her. "You've been the best student I've ever had, and I've been teaching for fifteen years."

Kati smiled. "Well then," she raised her glass. "To working together, and always being able to trust each other."

He clinked his glass to hers. "Agreed."

The next morning, Severus made sure the elves brought them good things for a hangover. After how much Kati drank he carried her to the spare bedroom. He couldn't blame her. She just stepped into her nightmare, and the only thing that her mother never wanted her to do. At least she didn't have to take on his mark just yet.

Before she'd gotten really sloshed, she was able to summon some of her clothes, a tank top and sweat pants, which is what she walked out of the spare room in. Severus realized that she wasn't wearing a bra, then chastised himself for it. She wasn't even seventeen yet, and he was thirty-five.

Yeah, just being around her made him feel old.

Kati's eyes widened at the sight of food, then she covered her face. "I don't know if I should eat."

"You should, you'll feel better." He promised. "Trust me, I've been hung over many times."

"Okay, I'll trust you." She sat down at the small table that was piled with food. She started just with some coffee, then grabbed a piece of bacon. Then a couple pancakes, then some strawberries. He then handed her a hangover potion.

"You needed to eat something before I could give this to you." He explained as she downed the tasteless liquid.

"Thank you." She said sincerely, looking up at him with grateful eyes.

"Well, we have to take care of each other, don't we?" He brushed it off.

Their trip was supposed to be a few days, by the time they found the mark of Amara-a five-pointed star over two squiggly lines-it was two weeks. Kati was getting tired of sleeping in a sleeping bag, but at least because of charms they were able to make the caves they stayed in comfortable.

The cave had a secret passage they found easily, and they looked at each other before Severus stepped in first, wand raised, so if it was a trap she would survive, not that he told her that. Kati followed soon after, and the passage sealed behind them

"How are we going to get out?" She demanded and she hit the wall with her fist.

"Apparation?" He replied as he looked at the wall.

"Oh yeah." Kati muttered, feeling stupid.

They found themselves in a cavern, the only light coming from their wands, and there was an empty pedestal in the center. The room was a perfect circle, like it was carved that way for more than a place to keep a very special cup. Dark brown sturdy walls all around them, unmovable. Kati had never felt claustrophobic until that moment. She had to remind herself that she could apparate out of there if it got to much for her. That calmed her down a bit.

"What are we supposed to do here?" Kati asked.

"No idea." He said. "I wonder why Voldemort wants it."

"Probably to be able to save his own life." Kati said. "If I could get it, I'd just leave it somewhere no one would ever find it. I wouldn't want to save my own life and take someone else's." Kati had read that in a book before they left to come here.

Kati heard the sound of wind, though it wasn't possible; they were in an enclosed space with no way out but magic.

Kati turned around, and a small golden chalice whose bowl was the size of a shot glass was on the little pedestal.

"It's like the Philosophers Stone." Severus whispered. "Take it."

Kati reached for it, and picked it up. The ground began to shake, and rocks began to fall around them. One caught Kati's shoulder and pulled her down as she screamed in pain. Snape caught her around the waist and apparated them to his house before fully picking her up and carrying her to his bed.

The rock had cut her shoulder, and he noticed that another one hit her head, and knocked her unconscious There was a cut with blood running down her forehead and down her cheek. Her shoulder looked worse though. The cut was deep, and it looked like it broke her collarbone. Blood was leaking into her shirt that had dirt on it from the cave. The little golden goblet was clenched in her hand. He took it from her and put it on the bedside table, as he severed her shirt off her, and started treating her wounds. Even with magic she'd have to be down for a while.

He fixed her up the best he could, and cleaned her up as well, he forced a pain potion down her throat. She still looked beautiful with the bruises on her, and her shoulder bandaged up. He couldn't believe that he let that happen to her. He let her get hurt while he got off without any injury.

He fell asleep while watching over her. They had to go to Voldemort the next night. It didn't matter if she was well or not. If she looked like it was a challenge it would look better than if she was without any marks.

Severus woke up with Kati curled up next to him. She didn't look like she was in any pain, but that was the potion doing its job.

Severus sighed, looking under the bandage and sighing. She was going to have a scar. He looked over at her other shoulder blade. She had the Deathly Hallows mark. He ran his finger over the black tattoo. It was magical otherwise it would be faded, and the black was still as vibrant as ever, contrasting against her golden skin.

Severus shook his head. She needed to rest the best she could before that night.


	17. Eyes Open

_"So here you are, two steps ahead and staying on guard._

_Every lesson forms a new scar._

_They never thought you'd make it this far."_

_-Taylor Swift, Eyes Open_

"Good job, my girl." Voldemort smirked when she held it out to him. "Bring in the muggle."

Kati couldn't hide her surprise. "How dare one of them be here? In your presence!" She quickly covered for her expression.

"I'm planning on you taking care of that." He told her, smirking since she said exactly hat he wanted to hear. He took water from a pitcher and filling the small glass.

A burly man was thrust into the room. Kati quickly calculated the odds he would live even if she got him out of here. They were beyond small, and that wasn't adding the pain and/or death she would be subjected to after she got him out. She had to kill him.

"Prick his finger, Lucius." Voldemort told him. "I need a drop of blood."

Kati's stomach turned when he squeezed a drop of blood into the Grail of Amara.

"As a reward to getting this while so many have died trying, and bringing it back untouched with minimal injuries herself. She will be given another life to use how she likes. To save her own, or save her love." He smirked into the word, as he kneeled a bit to hand her the chalice. "Bow to my knew assassin. Kati Venish."

All the other Death Eaters bowed to her, and she looked around, only able to make eye-contact with the snake in front of her.

"Drink." He commanded.

Kati swallowed the contents of the glass like she was taking a shot. Cringing a bit at the watered down taste of blood.

The muggle started choking on some invisible thing. His skin melted off his bones along with his muscles before becoming a skeleton. It thrashed and cringed as the muscle melted from his body, the grotesque body. It turned into a skeleton and then from its fingertips and toes in, turned into dust. He was dead, without a bit for his family to bury. She just killed her first person, and she could feel his life coursing though her.

She hated that his life force coursing though her made her feel good.

"You will be given this," Voldemort held up a silver bracelet that was in the shape of a snake, a gleaming emerald eye looking at her. "If you need to call a meeting, but your hand on it and imagine a time and place. This will be my mark on you."

Kati bowed low. "Thank you sir."

The moment Kati and Severus got home, she was in tears.

"I killed someone." She whispered.

"I know." He said, not knowing what else to say.

"I'm officially a murderer." She continued like she didn't hear him. "I can't believe it."

"You had no other choice but to kill him. Your life is worth more than his. You need to remember that you're more important." He told her.

She looked up at him, tears in her clear blue eyes. "And who is to judge who is more important? I have no right to, I'm biased and don't want to die."

"Then I will judge for you." He told her. "You may take hundreds of lives, but that is only to save thousands of others."

"Is that the non-cliche version of, 'the needs of the many outweigh the needs of a few?'" She asked, shaking her head.

"Yes, and I believe it is better than getting everyone killed. Are we agreed?" He asked.

Kati nodded. "I can feel him in me." She took his band and brought it to her chest, right over her heart. "Right here."

With her already touching him, he pulled her in to hold her. She was tiny in comparison to him. She was a foot shorter than him, and was strong, she had a good bit of muscle on her even though she didn't ever try out for quidditch, he could bet that she'd be decent at it just with her grace and strength. He was never that kind. He was thin and lanky, and all through Hogwarts he was the biggest klutz anyone has ever seen. Of course, he grew a bit out of that; his students wouldn't be scared of him if he tripped over his own feet.

"Do you know how to give life?" He asked.

She nodded. "I don't know how, but I do." She pulled away for a moment, frightening Severus a bit but he relaxed when she showed him her hands which were glowing with a golden aura. "I have to touch someone's bare skin. Good news, I guess, now if either of us get killed I can save one of us."

"Save who you want, don't worry about me." He told her.

"I think I'm always going to worry about you." Kati told him honestly. "Just like you're gonna worry about me." Her hands stopped glowing as she hugged him again, resting her head on his chest.

He didn't contradict her, he just held her tighter. He could barely believe she was only sixteen years old. She should be worrying about her classes, and what career she wanted to get into. Her career shouldn't be an assassin for the most hated man in the world. She's sixteen, she should be working in a shop somewhere so she didn't have to ask her parents for money. Instead she had no parents, no money other than what she had in her wallet until she was seventeen. He knew she had a lot of money. Her mother had a lot of money, as did her father. There was no way she was anything less than an heiress.

She was not born for this work, she had to have been given the finest things through her childhood. Everything handed to her on a silver platter. She was well trained, and smart. He had seen some of her book collection, and her clothing, how she spoke and how she held herself. She was well raised; no one could deny that. Severus knew she wouldn't dye her hair anymore; her parents didn't let her before, and now she wouldn't in memory of them.

It was amazing how he knew all these things about her, it's amazing he remembered it all. All the stories she had shared. All the things he had seen in her mind. He knew her so well. He-in his own way-loved her. How could he not? How could anyone not? She was beautiful. She was young. She was smart. She was strong. She was one of the few people in the world you would either love or hate. There was no middle ground to just like her. She was hated or loved, and Severus had a feeling that Kati was more loved than hated.

"Is this what is feels like every time?" Kati asked after a long while, she was curled up next to him on the sofa now.

"You'll get used to it." He told her. "But you'll always feel something. Taking a life will scar you. Your heart will be as black as mine by the end of it."

"Unless it already is." Kati muttered before changing the subject. "Am I taking my exams to graduate?"

"In the next week." He told her. "Tomorrow afternoon if you wish it."

"That sounds good." Kati replied. "Do you know what I'm going to be doing for the next year?"

"There has been talk of you teaching beside me. Assisting me." He told her. "The Dark Lord's idea, but I must say it's more productive for you than going back and wasting a year on schoolwork you already know, and is a thousand levels below you."

Kati started laughing quietly.

"What?"

"No one would ever believe you would compliment someone, let alone me." She giggled.

"Why not you?" He replied.

"A little American girl who's sassed you from the day we met." Her lips turned upwards in a small smile.

"You mean the girl that's given up her life?" He asked.

Kati looked down, unable to meet his eyes.

"The girl who's had to deal with the death of her family, and being on her own?"

"My brother isn't dead." She muttered.

"I think we both know he is."

"I hope so." Kati said. "He used to be my best friend. We'd tell each other everything, and wouldn't sell each other out. Blood really is...was thicker than water."

"And now?" Severus asked.

"And now I have you to be my brother." She told him. "Or, I guess something like that. It would be pretty bad if I was trying to rip off my brother's clothes in front of a bunch of Death Eaters."

Severus rolled his eyes, though his face became a little more guarded. "Yes, I believe that is frowned upon in most societies."

"Rightly so." Kati replied. "I'm going to go to bed." She stood up.

"You won't be able to sleep." He told her.

"I know, which is why when I crawl into bed with you at two AM, please don't kick me out." She pouted. If anyone would have heard her saying this, they would not think she said this as innocent as she meant it.

"I won't." He told her, patting his cheek with his index finger.

She kissed his cheek. "Goodnight, Severus."

"Try to forget about tonight." He told her sincerely.

"I wish I could." She shrugged before retreating to the room she used half the time. The other half she slept next to Severus. She always hated sleeping alone. She ever felt safe being alone in a dark room, though she couldn't sleep in any room with a light. Her fears were problematic, and illogical when it comes to the other evils she has seen and taken a part of.

Kati missed her old life. It was crazy to call it her, "old life" since it was only a few months ago, but it felt like another life to her. A year ago she had her parents as well, and a wonderful group of friends. When she moved to England she didn't think it could possibly get worse. Of course, life had to show her it could. Things can always get worse, and when things are looking up, it only means that the worst isn't here yet.

Kati cried herself to sleep for a good two and a half hours. At three AM she woke up from one of her nightmares. Tears still making tracks down her face; even in sleep she didn't stop crying. She crawled out of bed, needing not to be alone. She wandered into Severus' room, looking as young as she truly was in her blue tank top and moon and stars pajama pants. Her hair a bit tangled from sleep, and a small pout on her lips. Her eyes were a bit red from crying. She felt like she was a little kid again, running to her parents room because she had another nightmare.

She crawled into bed beside Severus, snuggling against his side. He put his arm around her and sighed.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up." She whispered in a childlike voice. An odd thing to hear come out of her mouth.

"You didn't." He told her. "Do you want to talk about it?"

She paused, and Severus knew she was going to wait until she exploded with the topic of this dream.

"Fred's dead."

He held her tighter. "I promise you, he's alive and safe. If he wasn't we would have heard by now."

"I know." She whispered. "But it felt real."

"How did he die?"

"A wall collapsed, and he was in the rubble."

Severus paused; she once told him that she could tell her visions from dreams by how real they felt. He had a feeling this one felt very real to her if it effected her like this.

"Well then, you and I will just have to make sure that doesn't happen, won't we?"


	18. Brave

_"Maybe there's a way out of the cage where you live._

_Maybe one of these days you can let the light in._

_Show me how big your brave is."_

_-Sara Bareilles, Brave_

Kati took her tests over then next three days, finishing them early, as well as finishing them in record time. After her last day of exams, Dumbledore had her and Severus in his office for tea, and offered her the job assisting Severus in Potions. She, of course, agreed right away. It was better than being a student; instead of taking tests and doing homework, she would be grading them. She would get a chair between Severus and McGonagall. Both of whom both knew what she really was doing there. She would be given rounds once every two weeks to make sure all the students were in bed, and she would be given any extra tutoring from everyone in the Order, which she would be meeting that night.

Kati was always one of those girls who had a perfect outfit for everything. She could look innocent or dangerous with just a few alterations with her clothing. But with the Order of the Phoenix meeting that night, she had no idea what she was walking into, and what they expected from her. Did they expect a stone-cold killer? A little girl who got in too deep? A loner? An assassin? She had no idea.

Severus came into her room a half hour before they were supposed to be at Grimmuald Place. She was standing in front of her closet in her bra and underwear.

"What's the problem, Kati?" He asked, already pressing his hand against his forehead.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to wear." She whispered, staring blankly at the rainbow of colors in front of her.

"How about more than your knickers?" He replied.

"Uh-huh."

Severus was taken aback. No sassy comment? No comeback? Nothing? She really was nervous. More nervous than with the Death Eaters.

He took two random things from her closet. Blue jeans and a blue sweater.

"Really, one color?" She asked.

He sighed, then picked up a black tank top. "Better?"

Kati nodded, and took them from him. "Thank you." She pulled on her tank top, and then her tight bootcut faded jeans. She was already wearing black socks, and pulled on her comfortable combat boots.

"You're really scared, aren't you?" He asked.

"I'm meeting the Weasley's tonight. It was supposed to happen at the train station, when they were giving me a place to stay, rooming with Ginny." She told him. "It was all supposed to be different."

"If it makes any difference, they'll probably like you more since you did the brave thing, and are keeping their kids out of it." He told her, putting his hands on her shoulders. "So, I'm going to be disappointed with you if you don't walk in there with your head held high, and sass radiating off your body."

Kati smiled shyly. "I'd never want to disappoint you." She paused. "Do they think we're lovers too?"

He shook his head. "They're going to find out it's our cover, though."

She nodded. "I think I can deal with that."

So that's exactly what she did. She walked into that room at Grimmuald Place with her head held high, and looking dangerous, though she didn't mean to. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail on the back of her head so you could see her face full on. She wasn't the dark, loner in the corner that was intimidating. She was the stare you down, in your face kind of intimidating; and the scars she had showing on her skin helped with that image. She didn't know how much she looked like her mother.

She sat next to Snape on the end of the table. Staying silent, but getting the most attention in the room. The spy they had heard about, but none of them had met. The girl that had given up her life to end the war. The girl that was nearly seventeen. She would stay silent until she had to say her piece. She wouldn't stutter. She would say it loud enough for all to hear. She would deliver it without her voice failing her.

At least that was what she hoped.

"Kati, would you like to share what you have learned from your time with the Death Eaters?" Dumbledore asked.

"Of course." She replied smoothly, before taking a deep breath. "For initiation, he told me to find the Grail of Amara."

"That is a myth." Said her Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher from the last year.

"I can assure you, it is anything but." Kati replied coolly. "With it in hand, we returned to him last week, and with it I took a man's life, so I can save someone I love's if they die. It was my reward for being able to get it, unlike others before me. As if it was difficult. He made me his lead assassin. That muggle that I killed to gain power will not be the only one I slaughter." She paused. "Since then I have taken all of my exams, and have taken a job to work beside Severus as his teaching assistant. That is all."

It took a moment for it to sink in.

"How old are you?" Asked Molly Weasley. The twins had her eyes; that and the red hair together made it obvious that they were related.

"Seventeen in August." As she said this, she realized what objections were about to occur.

"She's just a child!"

"Not even of age!"

"How could you let her do this?"

Other objections all bonded together, becoming garbles of syllables that were spoken by different voices, and were unable to be decoded by any master decoder. Kati waited patiently for them to fade, or Dumbledore to make her explain her situation.

"Enough." Dumbledore told them. "Miss Venish volunteered for this after her circumstances became unbearable. Severus has been training her for months, and it seems like her parents before him have trained her to be rather powerful. She knew she had to become a Death Eater, she just wanted it to be on her terms. The rest of the story is her's alone to say, and I doubt she wishes to share it with people whom she has never met."

Kati felt grateful that he wasn't make her spill her story to the people in front of her.

"Dumbledore is right, I will not share my story, I will only share what I need to help you."

"Kati Venish?" Asked a black-haired blue-eyed man in front of her. He looked like someone she used to know...or had seen in a flash...being dragged away by Aurors.

"Sirius Black?" She replied.

"Rosalie and Matthew's daughter?" He continued.

"Yes. I believe that's my parent's names. Rosalie's my middle name at the very least." Kati replied.

"You look just like her." He told her.

"And my aunt as well. I looked more like Lily when I was brunette." Kati said emotionlessly.

"Where is your mother?"

"Six feet under with my father."

"I'm sorry to hear about it."

Kati nodded. "My gravestone's there too. As is my brother's. I'm afraid ours are empty, though that's not what our friends at home think."

"Will your brother be joining use as well?" Asked a tall black man with a deep voice. Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"No. If he ever tries to join the Order, don't believe him. He's lost all sense of right and wrong." Kati said heartlessly. "He's just as good as I am, but he will kill needlessly."

"Was he trained from birth as well?" Mad-eye Moody asked gruffly.

"Yes, but I am stronger than him."

"And how strong are you?" Sirius asked.

"You don't have to show him if you don't want to." Severus told her softly.

"I don't think I will. You all will have to go off stories from the teenagers upstairs." Kati told him. She didn't like having to prove her powers, and she knew that it would drive them all crazy.

"I assure all of you, she is as good as she says; better even." Severus vouched for her.

"She may be pretty, Snape, but that doesn't mean she's powerful." Sirius told him.

"You seem to have forgotten her mother then." Severus replied. "Do you not remember her even exceeding her sister? A Venish gets what a Venish wants. Power runs in her blood."

"She's sixteen."

"And apparently more mature than you are." Snape snapped.

"Enough boys." Kati put her hand on Snape's shoulder. "Don't make me get between you."

"In other news..." Dumbledore changed the subject to something else. Kati didn't pay attention. She just made sure not to stare at the pair of brown eyes that never left her face; Molly Weasley.

When the meeting was over, Molly Weasley came to speak to her, looking concerned, but grateful at the same time.

"Kati?" She asked. "May I speak with you for a moment?"

Kati nodded, before turning to Severus. "I'll be right back."

He nodded, before turning away from her and speaking to Dumbledore in hushed tones.

Kati stood from her chair, and followed Mrs. Weasley to a little corner where no one would interrupt them.

"Before you say anything," Kati told her before she could speak. "I want to say I'm really touched that you made me a sweater, and invited me to stay with you. I'm sorry that I bailed at the last second."

"I have a feeling this is the reason why." Mrs. Weasley replied, gesturing around the room.

Kati nodded. "I didn't want Fred involved with this, so I thought it best I left him alone." She looked down. "How is he doing?"

"I'm not going to lie to you, you deserve more than that. He's heartbroken. He thought you'd stick around for longer. He's doing better though." Mrs. Weasley told her.

Kati nodded, feeling a mixture of happiness and sadness at the same time. Happy that he really did love her, sad that he was suffering because of her. She stared blankly over Mrs. Weasley's shoulder. "I never wanted to hurt him."

"I know, and I must say that I'm happy you did. I never wanted my sons involved in this." Mrs. Weasley sighed. "Like I'm sure your mother never wanted you involved."

"She never wanted me this deeply involved." Kati corrected. "She always expected me to be a part of the Order. I'm a fighter."

"So I've heard." Mrs. Weasley paused. "Ginny loves you."

"I love her too. I've always wanted a little sister, and I just found it in her. She's great." Kati told her.

Mrs. Weasley smiled proudly. "You helped her get ready for the Yule Ball. I'll never be able to thank you enough for that. She had a hard time making friends after a first year like hers."

"I bet. I couldn't imagine it. She told me about that." Kati said sadly. "It made her stronger though, even if it does come with her share of nightmares because of it."

"She's still getting them?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

Kati nodded. "I would be too if it was me."

Molly nodded. "I worry about her."

Kati just nodded, not knowing what to say to that.

"Either way, I just wanted to say thank you for protecting my children from this, no matter how much it hurt them." Mrs. Weasley told her.

"You're welcome. I love them too."

"I can tell." Mrs. Weasley agreed. "If there's anything you need..."

Kati nodded. "Thank you, Mrs. Weasley."

"Call me Molly." Molly told her.

"Thank you, Molly." Kati told her. "If I write letters will you give them to everyone if I die?"

Molly nodded. "Just give them to me first."

Kati nodded. "I will. When I'm seventeen, I'm also writing my will."

"You think you're going to die, don't you?"

"I have a higher chance than anyone else besides Severus." Kati told her. "I'm being realistic."

"You've barely begun to live."

"This is war. I believe my aunt died at twenty-one for her son." Kati told her.

"You're Harry's cousin?"

Kati nodded. "He doesn't know. He doesn't need to know. If he thinks he has family, it will only hurt worse if he finds out only half of my story."

"I'll make sure he knows all of it." Molly promised.

"Just make sure you remember what side I'm fighting for." Kati told her. "I want to end this with the Order leading the clean up of the war."

"Do you think there's going to be a war?"

"Sure of it. It's already begun if the Ministry likes it or not." Kati told her.

"Do you think we're going to win?" Molly asked seriously.

"No one's going to win this war. It's just the side people are going to put in the history books." Kati told her simply with a shrug.

Molly nodded. "Well, I guess we both know that is true. I have seven children, it will be a miracle if we all make it through."

"I promise you, I will do my best to make sure they do." Kati swore.

"Thank you." Molly smiled sincerely. "But, I'm sorry to ask this of you, but can you tell me why you started to become a spy?"

"Because my brother threatened Fred's life. I became a Death Eater to save him from my brother." Kati told her.

Molly nodded. "Why don't you have his mark?"

"Because I'm his assassin. If a young girl shows up having just killed someone with his mark on her, it's out that he's back. This way I'm untraceable. I came up with it. Now my skin isn't marked."

"But you do have a tattoo." Molly replied. "On your back. I saw it from under your tank top."

Kati nodded. "Yes, but it is not an evil one."

Molly sighed. "You're too young to be doing this."

"I know, but I can help." Kati told her. "This is war, not everything's going to be fair. Look at your daughter, and your youngest son...and Harry." Kati looked over her shoulder, Severus looked like he was ready to go, she didn't want to hold him up. "I think it's time for me to go." Kati told her, looking back at her. "Thank you, for this chat."

"Oh, for the record, I would have been happy you were dating my son. I like you more that you left him out of this though." Molly told her. "Maybe if you both make it through the war..."

"He'd hate me." Kati told her. "I don't think I'm going to be seen as a hero after this war if I survive."

"Don't say that." Molly told her. "Don't give up."

"Never. I'm just being realistic. See you at the next meeting, Molly."

"Come around if you ever want to talk." Molly told her. "I'm here."

Kati smiled sincerely. "Thank you. See you later."

"Bye, Kati." Molly replied, before Kati walked back towards Severus, but getting intercepted by Sirius.

"I knew your mother." He bursted out, loudly.

Kati jumped. "I could guess that." She said. "A nice, 'hi, how are you' is always nice to hear, even if you are shouted at."

"Sorry." He said, looking a little abashed. "I... It's just that you look like your mother's side. I know you're probably tired of hearing it...sorry I mentioned it." He shook his head.

She sighed, feeling sorry for the man in front of her. She stuck out her hand to shake his. "Hi, I'm Kati Venish. I moved here from the US a year ago this August. And you are?"

He seemed relieved that she was such a good sport. He took her hand and shook it. "Sirius Black. Just broke out of Azkaban two years ago."

She pulled her hand from his. "I heard. The news even made it to the American Wizarding papers since it has never happened before." Kati told him. "How did you do it?"

"Animagi. I taught myself how to change without a wand over those twelve years. Made if out with a stroke of luck, now here I am." He told her honestly.

"That's very impressive. Where'd you get this wand?" She nodded to the one in his pocket.

"Dumbledore got me it." He told her. "I work better with a wand."

"It channels your magic, yes." Kati agreed. "It's easiest to do spells with your wand."

"I'm sorry that the rest of us have not been trained as you have." He teased her.

"Everyone should be. I bet that Hermione would have loved it especially." Kati replied. "That girl likes being on top."

"I heard you ran into a bit of trouble with her last year." Sirius grinned.

Kati laughed. "Yeah, we learned to cope though. Nothing much happened after I convinced her I'm not Kati Venish."

"And now you're coming out and telling the world your name. I wonder how she will take that."

"I'm her teacher now, she won't sass me for it." Kati replied. "I'm Professor Venish."

"Full on professor at Seventeen? Anyone would be proud of that." He told her.

"I know I am." She replied. "Even if it was rigged."

Sirius shrugged. "I guess you will just have to settle for being the most powerful girl in the world."

"Yeah, I guess I will." She nodded. "I'm guessing that I'll be nicer than Severus at some things."

"Harry told me some of the things you did in his class, and I've heard even more from stories that Fred and George told me when I asked more about you. Fred's in love with you, you know." Sirius told her.

"I know." She told him. "That's why I had to leave him."

"You know what your mother would say if she was here?"

"That I should've stayed out." Kati said.

Sirius shook his head. "She would say that you are far braver and selfless than she could ever be. She and your father worked together. She didn't have to give up her life."

"Some would say I'm less smart than her."

"More dedicated." Sirius decided. "Take the compliment."

Kati nodded, the corners of her lips turning up in a slight smile. "Thank you, Sirius."

"There we go." He grinned. "I'm sorry that you had to do this."

"I chose to do this." Kati replied. "I wouldn't change it. I'm doing more good this way than any other."

"I'm not going to argue with you, because you wouldn't listen if I did." He told her. "So I'll just say I'm here if you need to talk. I won't comment on anything unless you ask me to."

Kati nodded. "Thank you for the offer."

"Your mother would kill me if I at least didn't offer you a safe place." He told her. "I loved your mother. She was a very good friend of mine. Our parents tried to push us together, but we were both too good of friends."

Kati smiled kindly. "It seems like everyone talks about my mother and not my father to me."

"Because you are just like your mother." He told her. "She didn't take anything from anyone either."

"So that's where I got my backbone from." She muttered. "I was taught that I deserved more than that. I'm spoiled, I always have been."

"To be completely honest, if you're anything like your mother you deserve more than this. I can't believe Snape let you get into this."

Kati looked straight into his eyes, her back becoming rigid at the though of him dissing her friend. "I didn't give him a choice."

"You could get killed."

"Very true. I could also save lives. Is one really worth more than many?"

"You're brave."

"Well, I was put into Gryffindor."


	19. Carry On

Chapter 19

_"When you're lost and alone, _

_Or sinking like a stone,_

_Carry on."_

_-Carry on, Fun_

Kati had been having dreams recently. Not the kind that showed her a possible future, but the ones that just confused her brain unless she forgot them right away. It made her tired and kept her in a terminally annoyed attitude. Most of them were surrounding one certain red head.

She could see their old times. His arm around her as she leaned against him on the couch, his nails slightly scratching her shoulder up to her neck, and then back down again as she slowly fell asleep on him as she read one of her novels.

"You could've told me what you were doing." Fred told her, his voice soft, like he was talking about the weather.

"I couldn't. You'd be in so much danger." She whispered back, still looking at her book.

He pulled on her hair a bit, making her look up at him. "But if you did we could still be together." He kissed her softly before pulling away.

When Kati opened her eyes, it wasn't Fred she was looking at anymore. His skin was lighter, and his hair was black. Fred's brown eyes were now black and looked a thousand years old. His nose was longer, and his face less handsome. She looked into the face of Severus Snape.

In the dream, Kati didn't jump. She didn't even seem surprised. "Now you're mine instead."

Kati awoke with a start, breathing hard, and her heart racing. She got up on her elbows to look around the empty dark room. She had dreamed often of the red head she was in love with, but not with him turning into Severus. Never with him turning into Severus.

Speak of the devil...

Severus walked in, surprised to find her awake. "Are you okay?"

They had been sleeping in the same bed since her nightmares would only go away when she wasn't alone. She felt safer with him next to her, and he felt better knowing she was safe next to him.

What he didn't like, was when she was sitting up, obviously waking from a dream she did not want to remember.

She nodded quickly, obviously not wanting him to speak of it.

"Okay," he said softly. "I'll be in bed in a minute."

She nodded. "Okay." She turned on her side and laid back down. Still freaking out about what her mind had just given her to see. Her heart was still beating wildly when Severus laid beside her in bed.

That reminded her that it was only a dream.

Class started up before long, and Kati was getting introduced to the school as a teacher. It was surprising, since Kati was wearing one of her teaching robes. They looked like a female version of Severus'. A black vest and with many buttons, but hers ended just below her breasts, like a vest. Her cloak did not have sleeves of any kind, and was just like a velvet blanket. The blouse she wore under the vest was the softest silk she had ever touched. She wore a silk skirt with that, that was loose around her legs, but attractively so. When she went to get them made, she told Severus she did want to look good. She had the same kind of styles in other colors as well. Deep blue, maroon, emerald, as well as another black, but it was a color between black and blue, unlike the one which she was wearing black, which was the purest black.

"Please welcome two new professors for this year, Kati Venish, and Delores Umbridge. Professor Venish will be assisting existing professors, though primarily Professor Snape, and Professor Umbridge will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts-"

Umbridge interrupted, which pissed off Kati. No one interrupts Dumbledore, especially not when she was a puppet of the Ministry. Severus had to grab her knee to make her keep sitting down during it. She could feel her speaking into her mind.

_Control yourself...it's not your place. _He told her, speaking directly into her mind. Something they had been practicing for weeks now. It took a lot of effort, but no one else would know what was said. It worked well, and was far more fun than just talking. Or so Kati always said.

She gave him a pleading look, begging to be able to speak up.

He shook his head.

Kati closed her eyes, looking physically pained in the situation she was in. Severus put his hand on her back, rubbing her shoulders lightly. Something that was not missed by Fred Weasley.

Kati kept her mouth shut, and only had small talk with her favorite professors in the row. Minerva (who told her to call her that; they were colleagues now), Filius (who had told her the same thing), and of course Severus. Nothing really heavy, just mild things. Asking how she was doing, how she was enjoying being of age. All rolling their eyes at Umbridge. Normal things.

After Dumbledore stood and dismissed them all, Severus stood, offering Kati his arm, and escorted her back to their shared quarters. Something that did not go unnoticed by the most important people to her in the student body.

"You almost lost control back there." He told her, as she started unbuttoning her vest when they reached their room.

She threw her cloak on the bed. "I know."

"You need to control your temper." He continued. "It does no good to blow it over something so small."

"That woman talked over Dumbledore!" Kati fumed.

"And your loyalty to him will be our downfall if this is how much it takes for you to break." He reminded her. "Remember what we're doing here."

Kati sighed, angrily getting out of her vest. "Is this the end of my reprimanding?"

"Yes." He said, surprised he effected her so.

"Good." She stomped over to the bathroom, grabbing her sports bra and sweatpants to sleep in.

"You have a nine o'clock class to teach in the morning!" He called loudly after her.

"Can't wait." She grumbled.

"Why are you so upset?" He demanded the next morning while she sat on the counter in their little kitchenette drinking coffee.

"I'm going to Italy and buying some coffee this weekend." She told him, frowning as she took another sip. "This stuff sucks."

"You know what I mean." He replied.

She put her coffee mug beside her. She was wearing her deep blue robes today making her eyes look the clearest blue as she looked up at him. "Of all the things I can do, I thought I'd be able to stick up for some people."

"While you're a Death Eater, you can't stick up for Dumbledore."

"But if they call him a fool, I can tell them not to underestimate him." Kati replied. "I just don't like seeing that woman do it. She acts like she's all sweet and sunshine, but she's some sick sadistic bitch when it comes down to it." Kati looked down at her hands that she had placed in her lap.

"Get used to it. She's here for the year." Snape told her.

Kati pouted, looking up at him with her big blue eyes. "I'm seventeen. I'm going to make mistakes."

"In the line of work you're in, you're going to have to work on that. One mistake could get you killed or worse. Remember that next time you follow you gut instead of your brain. I understand that you're a Gryffindor at heart, but this is the time to use your Slytherin-ness." For the last sentence his tone softened a bit, and he touched her arm lightly. "Remember, my classroom, be there before nine."

Kati nodded. He already knew she was missing breakfast. She could never eat when she was really nervous.

She jumped off the counter and walked through the halls to get to Dumbledore's office before her class. She was stopped by two high pitched coughs.

"Delores, I thought everyone was teaching their classes right now."

"I do not have an eight o'clock class." She said, looking like a cross between a pig and a toad with the amount of pink she was wearing. "Walk with me?"

"I would, but I am off to see Dumbledore." Kati told her.

"Oh, but I've heard so much about the great Kati Venish. I would rather like to speak to you. I'm sure it will be more beneficial for your career than seeing Dumbledore."

"I'm not looking to get a raise, if that's what you're asking." Kati told her. "I'm looking to thank the man that gave me a place and let me take my final exams late."

"Oh, but we all know girls like you, wanting to get a better job...working for the Ministry can get you places, Kati."

"I'm not looking to go anywhere." Kati told her, her voice getting firmer. "I'm grateful for what I have. I'm not looking for more."

"But you come from a family of wealth, this job must not be getting much to supply such a living." Umbridge's voice became firmer as well.

"Yes, but with the whole money from my parents deaths, as well as the money from our assets we sold, even splitting it down the middle with my brother, I got quite the amount of money. Investing it, and everything, even without a job I am well off for at least the next ten years." Kati told her. "I don't want to work more than I am now. I want to have a bit more fun while I'm still young and beautiful. This way I teach on average one class a day, and grade homework and papers. I work six hours a day at most."

"But, isn't money worth more?"

"Money is worth nothing if you're not happy. Take it from someone who knows." Kati whispered the last sentence, before her voice went to normal volume. "Look, I don't know what you wanted to ask me, but I'm not interested right now, okay?"

"Your seventeen, without knowing my offer you could be making a mistake." Umbridge told her.

"I think I can take the hit." Kati replied. "That's exactly it. I'm seventeen, I think this is one mistake that I can make."

"You won't know that unless you know."

"I don't want to know." Kati tried to end the conversation. "I'm sorry, but this has taken up my time to talk to Dumbledore. You have to teach your classes, and I have to teach mine. Let's keep this to a professional relationship, all right? Maybe next time you'll let me go to my appointment." She didn't wait for a reply, she turned on her heel, and started to walk quickly towards the dungeons.


	20. Some Nights

_"Some nights I wish my lips could build a castle,_

_Some nights I wish they'd just fall off._

_But I still wake up, I still see your ghost._

_Oh Lord, I'm still not sure what I stand for, oh."_

_-Fun, Some Nights_

Everyone thought Kati and Severus were sleeping together within a month. It wasn't just the fact that he would always be whispering in her ear something, but he would also put his hand on the small of her back when she was bending over a table, and he was double-checking her. He would walk with her when she was on her rounds to make sure the students were all in bed. When she was teaching a lesson and he would be watching from his desk, which wasn't all the time, but every so often, he would stare-down whoever was causing trouble. He would brush her hair over her shoulder. She would unconsciously lean into him whenever he was next to her.

One of these things would cause rumors, all off them put together made them think it was more than a rumor. The only ones who refused to believe it were the ones who knew her while she was still a student.

Though it wasn't really a lie. They were sleeping in the same bed every night to keep up appearances. If everyone believed they were together it would be better for them all, but Kati couldn't stop being happy that the people she loved were all still believing that she wouldn't sleep with someone for a job.

Severus noticed how Fred Weasley looked at Kati. It was a look he knew all too well. She taught the lesson to perfection. Instructing them all to brew a potion, and even walking around and giving them advice when they needed. She was a rather good teacher, even if she was younger than all of the people in the room.

But the way Fred looked at her did bother Severus. He looked at her like Arthur Weasley looked at Molly. How Matthew Venish looked at Rosalie. How James looked at Lily. How a man looked completely in love with someone, like they were the only thing in the room. The worst part for Severus was, Kati looked at him the same way.

It took six months of really knowing Kati for Severus to fall in love her. He knew she didn't love him back, or at least not in the way he wanted her to. He couldn't tell her. Not when he knew he didn't have a shot with her. He was her parent's age, and had nothing to offer her other than he was already giving her. It would only complicate her life even more. He couldn't do that to her. He wouldn't do it to her.

Or at least that's what he always reminded himself.

He screwed up with Lily. He didn't tell her, and if he had things could have been different. With Kati it was different. She was young and far more realistic with life than Lily was at her age. Kati knew that she would probably die, Lily always thought she wouldn't.

"Professor Snape?" Kati asked in front of the class.

"Yes?"

"Do you agree that whoever makes this potion perfectly does not get homework today, or am I overstepping my bounds?" She asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Do as you wish." He replied with a nod of his head.

Kati smiled, turning back to her class. "You heard him. Make the potion and no homework for you. I will check them all myself, for you not to have homework, you have to stay until I'm finished checking it, if you don't, I'll hand you the topic of your personal essay."

A hand raised. A dark haired Slytherin boy. "We all have different topics?"

"Yes, Gardini." Kati said. She knew he was copying his work off someone else, and now he can't. "It shouldn't take more than half an hour to make the potion, your time starts now. You know where everything is." She walked over to Severus' desk, and leaned her back against the front of it, crossing her arms as she watched her students.

"You enjoy giving them incentives." Severus said softly.

"It's a decent teaching method. It makes them want to do it at least." She shrugged. "Plus, I want to get Gardini to stop copying off everyone. His writing style changes every essay. I wonder why you've let him get away with it this long."

"There's only so much I can do."

She looked over her shoulder. "One more essay like that and I'll start handing out detention and taking away points. You do it to all the other houses but yours. You make a sport of doing it to Gryffindor."

Little comments like this from her did hurt him. It was obvious that he favored Slytherin, he knew that. Her saying it out loud just did something, especially when she felt so proud she was from his least favorite house. He felt bad for a moment or so, but he still wouldn't change.

Kati looked like she was having fun testing the potions at the end of class, and giving Gardini one of the harder topics for his essay, and telling everyone who made their potions correctly that she was proud of them. Her ex-boyfriend and his brother in that category. He could tell that when she handed him the vial back, he made sure to touch her fingers with his.

Severus hated that Kati smiled when Fred did it.

Kati walked through the halls alone one night, Severus was asleep in their bed. She couldn't stop thinking long enough to lose consciousness, so she went for a walk. It was at least a Friday, so she didn't have class in the morning, and could sleep in for the first time in weeks.

It didn't take long until she ran into a certain student that just happened to be breaking the rules.

"Mr. Weasley, what are you doing out of bed at this hour?" She asked, her voice though it was barely above a whisper rang through the hall.

"Oh, just looking for you, Professor Venish." He replied, grinning as he walked towards her.

"And what is your excuse?"

"Saw you walking around on the map. I personally thought you'd be in my class and not teaching it, but hey." He shrugged, stopping right in front of her.

"I should take points away for this." She let a light, teasing note enter her voice. They both knew she wouldn't do it, not with the points flying away from their house. She wouldn't screw them over even more. Maybe give him a warning.

"I know." He nodded. "Is this why you left me? You wanted to be a teacher and as one you couldn't be dating a student."

Kati looked away. "Can we please not talk about it?"

"As you wish, Professor." He nodded. "But you must answer one thing."

"What?"

"Do you still love me?" He asked.

"I can't answer that." She whispered.

"Are you with Snape?" He asked.

"Do you think I am?" She replied.

"I'm sure you would have answered the first question if you were." He stepped closer to her, his hand slipping up her neck into her hair, he leaned down to her. "Kati." He whispered before kissing her.

Kati wanted to cry at it. She knew she couldn't keep him, and this kiss couldn't go farther. She couldn't let it.

But she still let her hands pull him closer to her, and she lifted herself onto her tip toes, trying to get closer to him. She didn't even realize how much she missed him. The spicy lemon-y smell of him. The way he bit her lip just right. The way he pulled her hair just a bit. The way, without her realizing it, he backed her up against a wall, and used it to pick her up, giving her no choice but to wrap her legs around his waist and arms around his shoulders to hold herself up.

He pulled away to whisper, "I've missed you so much." His lips moved to his neck as Kati gasped for air.

She wanted to say the same. She wished she could. Having an affair with a student is forbidden; especially with her extra job as a spy. Nothing can come between her and her job.

Oh, but he was so good at it. He was her distraction, and he always would be. There was no way around him. He was always on her mind, even if it was in the smallest corner. He was always there. He haunted her.

She pulled his lips back to hers, but he only kissed her a moment before he pulled away.

"I know you didn't leave me because you wanted to." He whispered. "I can see the locket I gave you around your neck."

She forgot she was even wearing it. She looked into his eyes. "I wish I could tell you everything."

"Why are you pretending to sleep with him?" Fred whispered. "I know how you act around someone when you have, and you haven't."

"I can't answer that." She muttered back. "You know I can't. I'm your teacher."

"Yeah, and I've always liked it when you're in charge." He teased. "Maybe you can give me detention, _Professor_."

She just kissed them again. "I can't do this. I'm not supposed to do this."

"Why not?"

"It's against the rules." She said softly.

He bit his lip before sighing, placing her back on the floor, but keeping her pinned against the wall. "You always have so many rules to follow. We used to break them, you know."

"But not these, love." Kati told him. "You'll understand soon enough."

"How?"

"When you get out of school I'll explain it all. I promise you." She told him. "I'm sorry. This shouldn't have happened. I have to go." She ducked under his arm, breaking into a run to get away from him so she wouldn't change her mind. He could make her change her mind.

She got back to her rooms, Severus must have woken up because he was up waiting for her in his pajamas. Black sweatpants and green T-shirt. Her hair messed up and her lips slightly swollen from kissing Fred. He knew exactly what she had been doing from one look.

"Who? Don't tell me you went to Grimmuald." He told her.

"I'm going to bed." She muttered, hoping to get out of this conversation.

"Just like it was school again, Black getting all the girls." He reminisced, following her into their room. "I just never thought you'd be one of them."

"I wasn't making out with Sirius." Kati told him.

"Then who were you? I know that look on your face, Kati, and without me being the cause of it, it's a dangerous one." He stopped her, grabbing her arm to make her face him. "Who?"

"You're acting like you're jealous." She told him. "You have no right to be. If you really want to know, it was Fred. He found me wandering the castle while you were sleeping. He kissed me. I kissed him back. Don't blame me for wanting to be touched, it's human." She whispered the last two words.

"Next time you want to be, come to me. You know how dangerous it would be if you were caught with anyone else." He released her arm.

"Is that offer sincere? Is it because you want me?" She wandered back, a sarcastic smile on her face. "Don't be shy, every man wants me. Didn't you know?"

"Kati, don't be full of yourself, it isn't a good look on you." He told her.

"Full of myself? No not at all." She rolled her eyes. "I'm just saying what I've heard everyone saying. According to everyone else, we're already sleeping together. So go ahead, fuck me. Make all the rumors true." She opened her arms in a sarcastically inviting way.

He stepped towards her again, grabbing her chin and forcing her to look up at him. "For the record, any man who would fuck you,-as you so crudely said-aren't worth it. You're worth more than that." He let go of her chin as he turned on his heel, leaving the room.

She was speechless a moment. "Didn't we agree we wouldn't go to bed angry?" She called after him.

She sat on the bed, putting her face in her hands. They acted like a married couple, minus the romantic relationship. It scared her, and freaked her out beyond belief. It made her heart hurt worse than it already has.

She still loved Fred. If anything earlier that night proved it.


End file.
